leaves may fall on the sleeping ground

(Maybe it's not THAT deep, but anyway, 4 (!) times throughout the novel - it does mean something I guess)

Theo used to read Hart Crane's poetry since Vegas days, where he first got to know about him in school.

Hart Crane was a great American poet and was semi-public homosexual – not quite closeted, but also, as legally and culturally necessary, not open. And he associated his sexuality with his vocation as a poet.

He loved a man, Emil Opffer, with whom he had very strong and complex relationships. Crane described their relationships as a "blood-brotherhood". (Sounds familiar, Theo?)

"The Bridge" is the most well-known Crane's work, which Theo keeps reading throughout the novel.

The very first time he writes about it, he's getting high with Boris complaining about Kotku, and he wonders: "How had I never read that poem back in New York? And how had I never paid attention to the bridge when I saw it practically every day?"

And if we go through an analysis of "The Bridge" on Wikipedia, we can see that: "...even the bridge itself, the Brooklyn Bridge that is the central object of the poem, was strongly identified in Crane’s own mind with [Crane's lover] Emil Opffer."

Are you talking about the Brooklyn Bridge or about your repressed feelings to your charming Russian best friend, Theo?

Later he tries to recall this poem lying in his room alone with Popchyk but he can only remember a few words from it.

The next time Theo thinks about Hart Crane is when he's going to commit a suicide. We don't know exactly what were the reasons for Hart Crane's suicide, but some think homophobia and his attitude regarding his own sexuality were on the list.

And another interesting moment: in his dizzy state of mind during his suicide attempt in Amsterdam Theo says that Hobie "drank Cutty Sark because it was Hart Crane’s whiskey" in his youth. So we can see that Hart Crane had a very strong impact on Hobie too. And let's don't forget that Hobie is supposedly a gay man.

So it's really understandable that both Hobie and Theo find comfort in Hart Crane's poetry and his own lifestory since they are gay men struggling with unacceptable society (and struggling with theirselves)

"The job, the family, the fucking big television. The washing machine, the car, the compact disc and electric tin opener, good health, low cholesterol, dental insurance, mortgage, starter home, leisure wear, luggage, three piece suite, DIY, game shows, junk food, children, walks in the park, nine to five, good at golf, washing the car, choice of sweaters, family Christmas, indexed pension, tax exemption, clearing gutters, getting by, looking ahead, the day you die."