Thursday, September 1, 2011

“Driving a cardboard automobile without a license”

A good day to you!  How about a bit of poetry for your Thursday?

It’s really uncommon for poets to be anything even approaching “household names” in the U.S.  Of course, most people are familiar with the names of the canonical modernists like Eliot & Frost & Pound.  But the list grows even shorter when we think about poets who’ve written mostly in the latter half of the 20th century.  Lawrence Ferlinghetti, along with fellow Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, is one of the few, & also one of the very few whose books routinely appear in bookshops with very modest poetry selections.

At his best, Ferlinghetti is an absolute delight—the emotion behind his cascade language & disjointed images comes thru clearly, & there’s a whacky coherence such as one finds in the best early to mid 20th century French poetry—& of course Ferlinghetti came by this honestly (in a poetic sense) as a translator of Jacques Prévert: a good translator at that.

Now it’s true that sometimes Ferlinghetti’s whimsey can be a trifle cloying, but I believe his poetical strengths far outweigh his weaknesses.  When reading his best poems (& I’d say today’s featured poem is an example of these), there’s a real “wow” factor in the rush of imagery & emotion.

Hope you enjoy it!

Driving a cardboard automobile without a license


Driving a cardboard automobile without a license
      at the turn of the century
   my father ran into my mother
                  on a fun-ride at Coney Island
         having spied each other eating
             in a French boardinghouse nearby
            And having decided right there and then
                           that she was right for him entirely
   he followed her into
                           the playland of that evening
         where the headlong meeting
            of their ephemeral flesh on wheels
         hurtled them forever together

And I now in the back seat
               of their eternity
                     reaching out to embrace them

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

5 comments:

  1. I can hear that dry, sing-song voice delivering this short and sweet piece. A delight.

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  2. he followed her into
    the playland of that evening
    where the headlong meeting
    of their ephemeral flesh on wheels
    hurtled them forever together


    Beautiful. Aside from a few poems I read in college I'm largely unfamiliar with his work, but you've inspired me to look more closely at him.

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  3. Hi Dick & HKatz

    Dick: Yes, a delight indeed! Thanks.

    HKatz: I think you'll be rewarded by looking back into LF! Thanks.

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  4. Really like Ferlinghetti's poetry. First encounterd it in "Penguin Modern Poets 5".

    He was over here not so long ago. He was interviewed on Radio 4. Inspiring. Said something to the effect that the world needs Beat poets now as never before.

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  5. Hi Dominic: Thanks! He is an very good poet. One thing's for sure--we certainly need something these days!

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