John Vincent Caricato

John, aka Johnny, Cato was born John Vincent Caricato in Brooklyn, New York on August 27, 1946. He graduated from Bethpage High School on Long Island. After studying art at Cooper Union, John lived in Greenwich Village. He commuted uptown to the Empire State Building where he worked for years for the writer Ayn Rand. John developed environmental sensitivities and ideological aversions to Ayn Rand that led him, like so many young people of that era, to go on the road. Only John walked, rather than drive across the United States. In 1981, John Cato participated in an intercontinental walk called "A Walk to Moscow", which aimed to raise awareness for peace and nuclear disarmament. At the walk's endpoint in North America, he met Romanian surrealist poet André Codrescu at Louie's Bar in Baltimore. André kindly found him a place to crash for the night. The artist Jane Dalrymple had a cot for John in her kitchen. Cato made it to Boulder, Colorado just in time for the June 1982 Jack Kerouac Conference at Naropa then-Institute. Over the ensuing years he was given quarter by a great many poets (Thom Peters, Jay Jaworski, Gary Allen, Sarah Shantz, Randy Roark, Anselm Hollo, Elení Sikelianos, Allen Ginsberg, Joe Richey). His areas of expertise included soft path living, childcare, environmental hazards, governmental waste, fraud and abuse, urban survival, unidentified flying objects and lite occult literature. He remained in Boulder for years where he could live according to according the needs of his health condition, sleeping outdoors, avoiding synthetic carpeting, fluorescent lighting, and all pre-rolled cigarettes. He was known for his gentle manner and beatnik nonchalance. Before passing away peacefully on February 8, 2022, John received a small parade of visitors, including his sister Anne Marie Caricato from Medford, OR. He is survived by two other siblings Louis and Robert in California and Oregon. A homage to John Cato was organized by the So, You're a Poet Reading Series and held at Wesley Chapel on February 14, 2022 in Boulder. Cato relics are preserved at Cloud House in Catskill, New York. Contributions in his honor can be made to The Committee on Poetry in New York [www.committeeonpoetry.org]. Photo Credit: Steve Miles