Ginsberg’s Gratitude
And I never realized that [the cornices of the buildings] meant spiritual labor, to anyone—that somebody had labored to make a curve in a piece of tin—to make a cornucopia out of a piece of…
Category: Beats
Somewhere Along the Line the Pearl Would Be Handed to Me
In the bar I told Dean, “Hell, man, I know very well you didn’t come to me only to want to become a writer, and after all what do I really know about it except…
Friday 9 September 2022
… Later I’m back in New York sitting around with Irwin and Simon and Raphael and Lazarus, and now we’re famous writers more or less, but they wonder why I’m so sunk now, so unexcited…
The Main Compass
First Thought: Conversations with Allen GinsbergEdited by Michael Schumacher When it comes to interviews with Ginsberg, I prefer the larger and deeper Spontaneous Mind, which warrants a complete rereading. But then I come across…
Lawrence Ferlinghetti and the Insurgent Art of Poetry: A Fall Reading and Writing Class
Where are Whitman’s wild children,where the great voices speaking outwith a sense of sweetness and sublimity,where the great, new vision,the great world-view,the high prophetic songof the immense earthand all that sings in it —Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Populist…
Doing Poetic Battle with the United States of Amnesia
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Time of Useful Consciousness* (Americus, Book II) New Directions, 2012 This is Larry’s next installment of pastiche… of his own work, as he continues the Americus odyssey through U.S. history. I wonder what…
Share the Wealth: Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021)
#1 Welcome What are your associations about and/or experiences with Lawrence Ferlinghetti? #2 Owner of a Bookstore City Lights Spend five minutes browsing the site and notice what you notice. #3 A Publisher Allen…
Ferlinghetti Florilegium
endless the ever-unwinding watchspring heart of the world shimmering in time shining through space as if they were watching some odorless TV ad in which everything is always possible Where are Whitman’s wild children, where…
Meditations
Written in the Margins of Ginsberg’s “Why I Meditate” There are 10,000 reasons to meditate (at least) There are 10,000 beings to save (for starters) There are 10,000 demented states of consciousness to purify (carpe…
Writing to Wake Up 2020: A Winter Course in Creativity and Community
Writing is essential to my life, like breathing. I can live without a husband but I cannot live without writing. By writing I become one with the world and with myself. —Nawal El Saadawi What…