Recently, RageBoy, in a rant on blogging, quoted part of a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Dog

The dog trots freely in the street
and sees reality
and the things he sees
are bigger than himself
and the things he sees
are his reality
Drunks in doorways
Moons on trees

[read the whole thing]

I had meant to link to it but I got sidetracked. It probably was that reality thing again. I've been finishing one web site and trying to finish another. Life and that war and that dictator thing keep distracting me. Then, tonight, I see that Eliot Gelwan, at Follow Me Here, used some lines from it too. Read it. It's a wonderful poem.

I discovered Ferlinghetti in the 60s. My most treasured book of poems was A Coney Island of the Mind. He was my favorite Beat poet. Still is.

I thought I would see what else was out there on Ferlenghetti so I went to Google and here are some things I found.

Number 20
From 'A Coney Island of the Mind'

Number 8
From 'Pictures of the Gone World'

Sometimes during eternity

It's hard to explain how breathtaking I found Sometimes during eternity was when I read it as a young man shaking off religion.

Ferlinghetti was more than a poet. He ran one of the most famous book stores in the world - City Lights Books. The City Lights Books web site is just chock full of stuff. It has A Brief History of Lawrence Ferlinghetti as well as his Poetry as News columns.

And it has his latest poem.

HISTORY OF THE AIRPLANE

And the Wright brothers said they thought they had invented
something that could make peace on earth when their wonderful
flying machine took off at Kitty Hawk into the kingdom of birds
but the parliament of birds was freaked out by this man-made bird
and fled to heaven

[read this view on recent events]

And one last one.

BIRD WITH TWO RIGHT WINGS

And now our government
a bird with two right wings
flies on from zone to zone
while we go on having our little fun & games
at each election
as if it really mattered who the pilot is
of Air Force One
(They're interchangeable, stupid!)

[read the whole thing]