When he was the Poet Laureate in the late 1990's Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote a monthly column for The San Francisco Chronicle oxymoronically titled "Poetry as News." One of these columns included a list of Ferlinghetti's succinct definitions of what is poetry/what is a poet. His muse had been inspiring him with these thoughtful, lyrical, enigmatic as...well, poetry can be renderings for at least the previous forty years.
In this pocket-sized volume these spare phrasings are written down yet again. One can be found on the lower right side of each pair of facing pages. That leaves a lot of blank space, you say? It does in deed. Tabula Rasa for the possessor of this book to take flight with a master's inspiration to create his or her own tapestry of verse. It's Lawrence Ferlinghetti's invitation to fellow poets-as well as his blessing.
"It speaks the unspeakable
It utters the inutterable
sigh of the heart"
"The poet is a street singer
who rescues the alleycats of love"
"Words are living fossils
The poet should
piece the wild beast together
and make it sing"
Review: " 'Poetry is news/ from the frontiers/ of consciousness' is Ferlinghetti's opening reply to the title's question, and all the answers that follow reiterate that poetry is indeed the domain of those who are truly conscious. It is 'what we would cry out/ upon awaking in a dark wood/ in the middle of the journey/ of our life.' Dante would no doubt agree."
-Nimble Spirit
Bio: LAWRENE FERLINGHETTI sightings can still be made at his City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, where reside ghosts of the rest of the Beat Generation. He was the first Poet Laureate of San Francisco.
