LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI ~

 

A

REDWOOD

FALLS

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

March 24, 1919 ~ February 22, 2021

I N T E R V I E W

POETRY IS ~

Poetry is the shortest distance              between two humans.               — Lawrence Ferlinghetti                Poetry As Insurgent Art

AT THE GOLDEN GATE ~

At the Golden Gate


      At the Golden Gate

    A single plover far at sea

                             wings across the horizon

  A single rower almost out of sight

                                                 rows his skull into eternity

And I take a buddha crystal in my hand

                               And begin becoming pure light



______________

Lawrence Ferlinghetti
San Francisco Poems
San Francisco Poet Laureate, Series No. 1
City Lights Books
2001

LITTLE BOY ~

(UK edition)

(Kindle)

(Doubleday 2019)

Stream of consciousness away with the master poet!

TOMORROW (LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI) ~

F E R L I N G H E T T I

ALLEN GINSBERG & LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI ~

FERLINGHETTI ~

New Directions

2017

edited by Nancy J. Peters

————————————

Rough Song of Animals Dying

(Lawrence Ferlinghetti)





In a dream within a dream I dreamt a dream of the reality of existence
inside the ultimate computer
which is the universe
in which the Arrow of Time
flies both ways
through bent space
In a dream within a dream I dreamt a dream of all the animals dying
all animals everywhere
dying & dying
the wild animals the longhaired animals
winged animals feathered animals
clawed & scaled & furry animals
rutting & dying & dying
In a dream within a dream I dreamt a dream
of creatures everywhere dying out
in shrinking rainforests
in piney woods & high sierras
on shrinking prairies & tumbleweed mesas
captured beaten strapped starved & stunned cornered & traded
species not meant to be nomadic
wandering rootless as man
In a dream within a dream I dreamt a dream
of all the animals crying out
in their hidden places
in the still silent places left to them
slinking away & crawling about
through the dense underbrush
the last Great Thickets
beyond the mountains
crisscrossed with switchbacks
beyond the marshes
beyond the plains & fences
(the West won with barbed-wire machines)
in the high country
in the low country
crisscrossed with highways
In a dream within a dream I dreamt a dream
of how they feed & rut & run & hide
In a dream within a dream I saw
how seals are beaten on the ice-fields
the soft white furry seals with eggshell skulls
the Great Green turtles beaten & eaten
exotic birds netted & caged & tethered
rare wild beasts & strange reptiles & weird woozoos hunted down for zoos
by bearded blackmarketeers
who afterwards ride around Singapore
in German limousines
In a dream within a dream I dreamt a dream
of the earth heating up & drying out
in the famous Greenhouse Effect
under its canopy of carbon dioxide
breathed out by a billion
infernal combustion engines
mixed with the sweet smell of burning flesh
In a dream within a dream I dreamt a dream
of animals calling to each other
in codes we never understand
The seal and steer cry out
in the same voice
as they are clubbed
in Chicago stockyards & Newfoundland snowfields It is the same cry
The wounds never heal
in the commonweal of animals
We steal their lives
to feed our own
and with their lives
our dreams are sown
In a dream within a deam I dreamt a dream
of the daily scrimmage for existence
in the wind-up model of the universe
the spinning meat-wheel world
in which I was a fish who eats his tail
in which I was a claw upon a beach
in which I was a snake upon a tree
in which I was a serpent's egg
a yin-yang yolk of good and evil
about to consume itself 


F E R L I N G H E T T I

THE WORLD IS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE ~

THE GREAT CAREER ~

A L L E N    G I N S B E R G    ~   L A W R E N C E    F E R L I N G H E T T I

A wonderful book to be read on so many levels of friendship, literary business, over-lapping connections during a time of war, life on the streets, long before the practice of the Internet and when letters were on paper one waited to receive and great mountains of great books were published, libraries made, and singers were filled with song, not apps.

http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100245130

 

C I T Y   L I G H T S 

( 2015 ) 

SHARDS ~

http://www.ndbooks.com/book/shards-fragments-of-verses/

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/04/lawrence-ferlinghetti-interview-poets

WRITING ACROSS THE LANDSCAPE ~

L A W R E N C E    F E R L I N G H E T T I

( Liveright 2015 )


http://blog.sfgate.com/bookmarks/2014/03/17/ferlinghetti-to-publish-his-travel-journals/

50 years of being there

FERLINGHETTI ~

FERLINGHETTI ~

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

One of the last men standing ~ and it is well worth reading the verve of a wise poet, painter, technician (of the sacred) storyteller, activist and world traveler.


Please click on here:

http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/2132/ferlinghetti_11_1_10/