Tonight, I Fell In Love With Ferlinghetti
There's a breathless hush on the freeway tonight
Beyond the ledges of concrete
restaurants fall into dreams
with candlelight couples
Lost Alexandria still burns
in a billion lightbulbs
Lives cross lives
idling at stoplights
Beyond the cloverleaf turnoffs
'Souls eat souls in the general emptiness'
A piano concerto comes out a kitchen window
A yogi speaks at Ojai
'It's all taking pace in one mind'
On the lawn among the trees
lovers are listening
for the master to tell them they are one
with the universe
Eyes smell flowers and become them
There's a deathless hush
on the freeway tonight
as a Pacific tidal wave a mile high
sweeps in
Los Angeles breathes its last gas
and sinks into the sea like the Titanic all lights lit
Nine minutes later Willa Cather's Nebraska
sinks with it
The sea comes over in Utah
Mormon tabernacles washed away like barnacles
Coyotes are confounded & swim nowhere
An orchestra onstage in Omaha
keeps on playing Handel's Water Music
Horns fill with water
ans bass players float away on their instruments
clutching them like lovers horizontal
Chicago's Loop becomes a rollercoaster
Skyscrapers filled like water glasses
Great Lakes mixed with Buddhist brine
Great Books watered down in Evanston
Milwaukee beer topped with sea foam
Beau Fleuve of Buffalo suddenly become salt
Manhatten Island swept clean in sixteen seconds
buried masts of Amsterdam arise
as the great wave sweeps on Eastward
to wash away over-age Camembert Europe
manhatta steaming in sea-vines
the washed land awakes again to wilderness
the only sound a vast thrumming of crickets
a cry of seabirds high over
in empty eternity
as the Hudson retakes its thickets
and Indians reclaim their canoes
posted by Anonymous @ 8:07 PM
9 Comments:
This is a classic, and rightfully so. A wonderful poem.
My little brah met and hung out with Ferlinghetti at City Lights a few years back. Kinda jealous...
Is this a reminder to get our 72 hour kits ready?
Ahhh...I need to get a little beat back into my life again!
No kit of any duration will allow us to withstand Ferlinghetti's New Beginning!
Speak for yourself.... I keep an Indian and a canoe in my kit!
Charise,
What got you reading Ferlinghetti? I’ve been on something of an odyssey for poetry, lately. I really enjoyed Frequent Flyer Miles, as well.
Well E.R.,
For years now I've had a penchant for beat writers (Burroughs/Keroauc/Ginsberg), but just the other night I watched a PBS doc on Bob Dylan and it featured some quotes etc. from Ferlinghetti. It just reignited a spark, made me want more.
Thanks for the positive comment on Frequent Flyer Miles, maybe I'll post some more poetry...
Charise,
Interesting. I've been a Kerouac fan for years. I had long counted Pomes All Sizes among my favorite books before it occurred to me to start reading poetry more generally. (Long story)
Next Blog dropped me at the doorstep of Jacqeline Gens' interscape, which I followed to another of her blogs, Poetrymind. She writes about her own experiences with Ginsberg and posts some very interesting material. Her Podcast includes some readings.
I'd love to read more of your work.
hello charise, (it's me, ben, katherine's husband) anyway, this is actually the first time i've checked out your blog. sick day, home from work. we have a pretty good collection of poetry that you might enjoy. i deeply recommend our friend Maj Ragain and a beat Jack Micheline. Thanks for this poem!
Post a Comment
<< Home