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I recently entered a contest to win a copy of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's new novel "Little Boy" and was surprised at receiving favorable responses simply for showing an interest in the book, published as Ferlinghetti (b. March 24, 1919) reaches the century mark. The response encouraged me to read Ferlinghetti rather than merely to enter a contest. I turned to this collection, "Ferlinghetti's Greatest Poems" published by New Directions in 2017 when the poet was the young age of 98.
Ferlinghetti has been a presence in American life for many years. I have been most familiar with him through my reading of Beat works by Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Ferlinghetti published Ginsberg's poem "Howl" and defended the poem in a subsequent obscenity trial. Among other things, Ferlinghetti has also owned San Francisco's City Lights bookstore for many years, and he has become almost synonymous with the cultural life of the city. I have read Ferlinghetti before, but this is the first time I remember reading through an entire book. It was a rewarding thing to do and shouldn't have had to wait until the poet was reaching 100.
The book offers an overview of Ferlinghetti's poetry from 1955 to 2014 and includes works from 12 published collections. The poetry has a feeling of spontaneity and accessibility as Ferlinghetti avoided the difficult, academic style of some contemporary poetry. The poems are a fun to read and also frequently serious. Many of the works have the feel of a painting. The poems are set in San Francisco, of course, but also in New York City, Paris, and elsewhere. Figures such as Pablo Neruda, Jack Kerouac, Ezra Pound, and Dylan Thomas receive recognition in these poems. While many of the poems have a political bent, many others celebrate individual feeling and experience and the joy of being alive. Many of the poems are written in a form of variable, broken lines which reminded me of William Carlos Williams. There are many other poetic influences, including Whitman, as well.
I thought the best of these poems were those included in Ferlinghetti's early collection "The Coney Island of the Mind", a book which has become a rare million-seller for a work of poetry and a probably the work for which Ferlinghetti will be remembered. There are 13 works included from this collection, including the work in which the poet declares "The pennycandystore beyond the El/ is where I first/ fell in love/ with unreality." It is difficult not to fall in love with this poem. In the poem "I am waiting" Ferlinghetti announces a theme for his poetry and for his understanding of life as he repeats "I am perpetually awaiting/a rebirth of wonder." The poetry from "Coney Island of the Mind" is accessible and inspiring.
Ferlinghetti continued to write in his own style through the rest of the books excerpted in this anthology with many outstanding poems. The poems I especially enjoyed included the short "Recipe for Happiness in Khaboravosk or Anyplace", "Baseball Canto", "The Scavengers on a Truck: Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes" "The Old Italians Dying", "Roman Morn" and more. In an excerpt from a series called "Paris Transformations" Ferlinghetti reflects on the inevitability of death.
"For years I never thought of death.
Now the breath
of the eternal harlequin
makes me look up
as if a defrocked Someone were there
who might make me into an angel
playing piano on a riverboat."
This is a book to get to know and to revisit. It enhanced my appreciation of the Beats and of other American poetry and art with a broad-based appeal. I enjoyed sitting down with Ferlinghetti at last and thinking about his accomplishments and vision as he reaches 100 years of age.
