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Endless Life: The Selected Poems
Book by Ferlinghetti, Lawrence
- GenresPoetry
220 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
2 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
258 books648 followersA prominent voice of the wide-open poetry movement that began in the 1950s, Lawrence Ferlinghetti has written poetry, translation, fiction, theater, art criticism, film narration, and essays. Often concerned with politics and social issues, Ferlinghetti’s poetry countered the literary elite's definition of art and the artist's role in the world. Though imbued with the commonplace, his poetry cannot be simply described as polemic or personal protest, for it stands on his craftsmanship, thematics, and grounding in tradition.
Ferlinghetti was born in Yonkers in 1919, son of Carlo Ferlinghetti who was from the province of Brescia and Clemence Albertine Mendes-Monsanto. Following his undergraduate years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he served in the U.S. Navy in World War II as a ship's commander. He received a Master’s degree from Columbia University in 1947 and a Doctorate de l’Université de Paris (Sorbonne) in 1950. From 1951 to 1953, when he settled in San Francisco, he taught French in an adult education program, painted, and wrote art criticism. In 1953, with Peter D. Martin (son of Carlo Tresca) he founded City Lights Bookstore, the first all-paperbound bookshop in the country, and by 1955 he had launched the City Lights publishing house.
The bookstore has served for half a century as a meeting place for writers, artists, and intellectuals. City Lights Publishers began with the Pocket Poets Series, through which Ferlinghetti aimed to create an international, dissident ferment. His publication of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl & Other Poems in 1956 led to his arrest on obscenity charges, and the trial that followed drew national attention to the San Francisco Renaissance and Beat movement writers. (He was overwhelmingly supported by prestigious literary and academic figures, and was acquitted.) This landmark First Amendment case established a legal precedent for the publication of controversial work with redeeming social importance.
Ferlinghetti’s paintings have been shown at various galleries around the world, from the Butler Museum of American Painting to Il Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. He has been associated with the international Fluxus movement through the Archivio Francesco Conz in Verona. He has toured Italy, giving poetry readings in Roma, Napoli, Bologna, Firenze, Milano, Verona, Brescia, Cagliari, Torino, Venezia, and Sicilia. He won the Premio Taormino in 1973, and since then has been awarded the Premio Camaiore, the Premio Flaiano, the Premio Cavour. among others. He is published in Italy by Oscar Mondadori, City Lights Italia, and Minimum Fax. He was instrumental in arranging extensive poetry tours in Italy produced by City Lights Italia in Firenze. He has translated from the italian Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Poemi Romani, which is published by City Lights Books. In San Francisco, his work can regularly be seen at the George Krevsky Gallery at 77 Geary Street.
Ferlinghetti’s A Coney Island of the Mind continues to be the most popular poetry book in the U.S. It has been translated into nine languages, and there are nearly 1,000,000 copies in print. The author of poetry, plays, fiction, art criticism, and essays, he has a dozen books currently in print in the U.S., and his work has been translated in many countries and in many languages. His most recent books are A Far Rockaway of the Heart (1997), How to Paint Sunlight (2001), and Americus Book I (2004) published by New Directions.
He has been the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Los Angeles Times’ Robert Kirsch Award, the BABRA Award for Lifetime Achievement, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Award for Contribution to American Arts and Letters, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award. Ferlinghetti was named San Francisco’s first poet laureate.
Ferlinghetti was born in Yonkers in 1919, son of Carlo Ferlinghetti who was from the province of Brescia and Clemence Albertine Mendes-Monsanto. Following his undergraduate years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he served in the U.S. Navy in World War II as a ship's commander. He received a Master’s degree from Columbia University in 1947 and a Doctorate de l’Université de Paris (Sorbonne) in 1950. From 1951 to 1953, when he settled in San Francisco, he taught French in an adult education program, painted, and wrote art criticism. In 1953, with Peter D. Martin (son of Carlo Tresca) he founded City Lights Bookstore, the first all-paperbound bookshop in the country, and by 1955 he had launched the City Lights publishing house.
The bookstore has served for half a century as a meeting place for writers, artists, and intellectuals. City Lights Publishers began with the Pocket Poets Series, through which Ferlinghetti aimed to create an international, dissident ferment. His publication of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl & Other Poems in 1956 led to his arrest on obscenity charges, and the trial that followed drew national attention to the San Francisco Renaissance and Beat movement writers. (He was overwhelmingly supported by prestigious literary and academic figures, and was acquitted.) This landmark First Amendment case established a legal precedent for the publication of controversial work with redeeming social importance.
Ferlinghetti’s paintings have been shown at various galleries around the world, from the Butler Museum of American Painting to Il Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. He has been associated with the international Fluxus movement through the Archivio Francesco Conz in Verona. He has toured Italy, giving poetry readings in Roma, Napoli, Bologna, Firenze, Milano, Verona, Brescia, Cagliari, Torino, Venezia, and Sicilia. He won the Premio Taormino in 1973, and since then has been awarded the Premio Camaiore, the Premio Flaiano, the Premio Cavour. among others. He is published in Italy by Oscar Mondadori, City Lights Italia, and Minimum Fax. He was instrumental in arranging extensive poetry tours in Italy produced by City Lights Italia in Firenze. He has translated from the italian Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Poemi Romani, which is published by City Lights Books. In San Francisco, his work can regularly be seen at the George Krevsky Gallery at 77 Geary Street.
Ferlinghetti’s A Coney Island of the Mind continues to be the most popular poetry book in the U.S. It has been translated into nine languages, and there are nearly 1,000,000 copies in print. The author of poetry, plays, fiction, art criticism, and essays, he has a dozen books currently in print in the U.S., and his work has been translated in many countries and in many languages. His most recent books are A Far Rockaway of the Heart (1997), How to Paint Sunlight (2001), and Americus Book I (2004) published by New Directions.
He has been the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Los Angeles Times’ Robert Kirsch Award, the BABRA Award for Lifetime Achievement, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Award for Contribution to American Arts and Letters, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award. Ferlinghetti was named San Francisco’s first poet laureate.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 10, 2018
“Used to be something of a gateway poet for young people in America, and a residue of nostalgic fondness remains even for those readers who have moved on to ostensibly more sophisticated stuff”
A pulse point in the Beatnik generation, an accessible poet with no time complications and linguistic obscurity. A believer in making poetry accessible, and in the power of poetry to affect profound and lasting change on our society, I present to those of you that haven’t already been introduced: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a nice change of pace from the modern popularity of lazy, soft, explicit romantic poetry…
Poets, descend
to the street of the world once more
And open your minds & eyes
with the old visual delight,
Clear your throat and speak up,
Poetry is dead, long live poetry
with terrible eyes, and buffalo strength.
Don’t wait for the Revolution
or it’ll happen without you,
Stop mumbling and speak out
with new wide-open poetry
with a new commensensual ‘public surface’
with other subjective levels, a tuning fork in the inner ear
to strike below the surface.
-Populist Manifesto...
“He has a gift for helping you hear what needs to be said, free of impenetrable filters. He is allergic to willful obscurity and “our little literary games,” as he declared in one “Howl”-referencing populist manifesto that he titled, with characteristic directness, “Populist Manifesto No. 1”:
We have seen the best minds of our generation destroyed by boredom at poetry readings. Poetry isn’t a secret society, It isn’t a temple either. Secret words & chants won’t do any longer. ”
Still they lie at the bottom / very still / conserving what they’ve got / Fishermen don’t have diving masks and never see them down there and pass on quickly / as we dive down again & again / and see the fish in their steady-state of meditation / a final yoga discipline / which could go on until there is no water at all left in the stream / Then we might find them / still in swimming position / fins extended / mouth slightly open / eyes half closed / Or still later we might find their skeletons intact / in the same positions / baked in the fiery sun / like Buddhist monks burned alive in lotus positions / Or still much later another age might discover / two fossil skeletons / imprinted on the boulders / at the very bottom of the crypt / as evidence of some former strange form / of a thing called Life / And if we stayed on here with them / waiting & waiting / that later age / might also be able to imagine one boy and his father fishing / by this stream / though our two rounded skulls / be found with the fishes / Yet seeing now the beauty of those fish / down there below the surface / so still and lovely / in their deep dream / dappled in their last deep pool / We fish no longer / turn / and go on / into the deeper pools / of our own lives.
-Into the Deeper Pools...
If you’re curious about Ferlinghetti—like I was, what lover of literature and punk music and Beatniks wouldn’t be—check out this great article by Jeff Gordinier:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/bo...
^That’s where I picked up some of these great quotes describing the nature of Ferlinghetti’s work. This article was written in honor of the publication of his ‘Greatest Hits album,’ Ferlinghetti’s Greatest Poems.
A pulse point in the Beatnik generation, an accessible poet with no time complications and linguistic obscurity. A believer in making poetry accessible, and in the power of poetry to affect profound and lasting change on our society, I present to those of you that haven’t already been introduced: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a nice change of pace from the modern popularity of lazy, soft, explicit romantic poetry…
Poets, descend
to the street of the world once more
And open your minds & eyes
with the old visual delight,
Clear your throat and speak up,
Poetry is dead, long live poetry
with terrible eyes, and buffalo strength.
Don’t wait for the Revolution
or it’ll happen without you,
Stop mumbling and speak out
with new wide-open poetry
with a new commensensual ‘public surface’
with other subjective levels, a tuning fork in the inner ear
to strike below the surface.
-Populist Manifesto...
“He has a gift for helping you hear what needs to be said, free of impenetrable filters. He is allergic to willful obscurity and “our little literary games,” as he declared in one “Howl”-referencing populist manifesto that he titled, with characteristic directness, “Populist Manifesto No. 1”:
We have seen the best minds of our generation destroyed by boredom at poetry readings. Poetry isn’t a secret society, It isn’t a temple either. Secret words & chants won’t do any longer. ”
Still they lie at the bottom / very still / conserving what they’ve got / Fishermen don’t have diving masks and never see them down there and pass on quickly / as we dive down again & again / and see the fish in their steady-state of meditation / a final yoga discipline / which could go on until there is no water at all left in the stream / Then we might find them / still in swimming position / fins extended / mouth slightly open / eyes half closed / Or still later we might find their skeletons intact / in the same positions / baked in the fiery sun / like Buddhist monks burned alive in lotus positions / Or still much later another age might discover / two fossil skeletons / imprinted on the boulders / at the very bottom of the crypt / as evidence of some former strange form / of a thing called Life / And if we stayed on here with them / waiting & waiting / that later age / might also be able to imagine one boy and his father fishing / by this stream / though our two rounded skulls / be found with the fishes / Yet seeing now the beauty of those fish / down there below the surface / so still and lovely / in their deep dream / dappled in their last deep pool / We fish no longer / turn / and go on / into the deeper pools / of our own lives.
-Into the Deeper Pools...
If you’re curious about Ferlinghetti—like I was, what lover of literature and punk music and Beatniks wouldn’t be—check out this great article by Jeff Gordinier:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/bo...
^That’s where I picked up some of these great quotes describing the nature of Ferlinghetti’s work. This article was written in honor of the publication of his ‘Greatest Hits album,’ Ferlinghetti’s Greatest Poems.
December 3, 2022
4.5
There are some incredible incredible pieces in here, obviously
I’m sad Ferlinghetti lost some of his “unrefined” style in the later works, I really enjoyed the sort of whimsical, informal voice of earlier poems from his first publication. But I guess as his voice evolved he definitely elevated the true stylistic elements, language, content of his poetry. Lots of stars and dog-ears comin from this book, would recommend
There are some incredible incredible pieces in here, obviously
I’m sad Ferlinghetti lost some of his “unrefined” style in the later works, I really enjoyed the sort of whimsical, informal voice of earlier poems from his first publication. But I guess as his voice evolved he definitely elevated the true stylistic elements, language, content of his poetry. Lots of stars and dog-ears comin from this book, would recommend
January 30, 2019
I read this because I realized that L. F. was going to turn 100 in March, and I hadn't ever really given him a good read. I figured reading a Selected Poems would give me a good overview of what periods of his long career I would be most interested in exploring further. Here are my thoughts!
Man, this guy talks about his dick and ladies' boobs a lot. Also, man this guy loves to just drop the titles of works of art all over his poems. That second impulse seems to settle down a bit over the course of his career, but he still keeps talking about his dick the whole time. But hey, it's an easy breezy read that didn't stress me out too much. I just rolled my eyes and moved on when he got too frisky.
It reminded me of this: http://the-toast.net/2015/01/12/women...
It also kind of reminded me of Don Draper from Mad Men. Particularly the way I'd keep seeing references to more and more recent works, and I'd check the date of the poem, and sure enough he would be referencing something written 3-5 years ago. Keeping those references hip for that target market.
But then I thought, maybe I'm being unkind. Maybe he just reads a lot a lot a lot, and so his internal life mostly consists of all the stuff he's reading. Maybe he should own a bookstore or something.
I liked some of these poems! My favorite was "Underwear", which is just silly and funny, and hey looks like he's already, in 1961, comparing gender to "the two-party system / which doesn't allow much freedom of choice". A cool reference to a tumblr post I made 50 years afterward.
Also there's a lot of elegies in here, because I guess when you live to 99 you see a lot of people die, and I found these to be some of the strongest in the bunch. Sad Lawrence is more appealing to me than horny Lawrence.
Also "Night Light". That's a good, creepy poem that sounds like it should be set to music.
Oh, and I guess I should read Mayakovsky, because fuckin every single poet I read is all "Mayakovsky is the greatest!" Ugh, FINE.
I'll probably look more into his 60's work, if anywhere.
Man, this guy talks about his dick and ladies' boobs a lot. Also, man this guy loves to just drop the titles of works of art all over his poems. That second impulse seems to settle down a bit over the course of his career, but he still keeps talking about his dick the whole time. But hey, it's an easy breezy read that didn't stress me out too much. I just rolled my eyes and moved on when he got too frisky.
It reminded me of this: http://the-toast.net/2015/01/12/women...
It also kind of reminded me of Don Draper from Mad Men. Particularly the way I'd keep seeing references to more and more recent works, and I'd check the date of the poem, and sure enough he would be referencing something written 3-5 years ago. Keeping those references hip for that target market.
But then I thought, maybe I'm being unkind. Maybe he just reads a lot a lot a lot, and so his internal life mostly consists of all the stuff he's reading. Maybe he should own a bookstore or something.
I liked some of these poems! My favorite was "Underwear", which is just silly and funny, and hey looks like he's already, in 1961, comparing gender to "the two-party system / which doesn't allow much freedom of choice". A cool reference to a tumblr post I made 50 years afterward.
Also there's a lot of elegies in here, because I guess when you live to 99 you see a lot of people die, and I found these to be some of the strongest in the bunch. Sad Lawrence is more appealing to me than horny Lawrence.
Also "Night Light". That's a good, creepy poem that sounds like it should be set to music.
Oh, and I guess I should read Mayakovsky, because fuckin every single poet I read is all "Mayakovsky is the greatest!" Ugh, FINE.
I'll probably look more into his 60's work, if anywhere.
March 5, 2025
Πολύ ενδιαφέροντα «Μπητ» ποιήματα μα δεν μπορώ να τα κρίνω πραγματικά από την Ελληνική μετάφραση. Ο συγκεκριμένος μεταφραστής είναι εξαιρετικός και εγγύηση και δεν μπορώ (μια χαρά μπορώ!) να αμφισβητήσω την επιλογή του να ξεχάσει να βάλει τόνους στο εν τρίτο των λέξεων (δεν εννοώ μονοσύλλαβες λέξεις) και να διαπράξει εκούσιες ανατριχιαστικές ανορθογραφίες σε εκατοντάδες λέξεις μέσα στις 50 σελίδες μα εμένα αυτό με ενόχλησε πολύ και μού χάλασε την αναγνωστική απόλαυση.
December 2, 2023
This is a collection I return to reasonably regularly but on revisiting and deciding to read the whole collection through this time, I've come to the conclusion that I really love some of Ferlinghetti's poetry (Mike's Place is the standout for me), but I'm a bit indifferent about most of it. Some of it hasn't dated well. I'm sure it sounded better in San Francisco in the 60s.
July 4, 2025
A poet with whom I share few views, but of whom I am very fond. I tend to enjoy his work in the early seventies the most overall, but I think he never topped his poem "Constantly risking absurdity..." from his late fifties book "A Coney Island of the Mind." He deserves to be remembered forever for that bit of brilliance. If you haven't read it, it's easy to find, so go do that.
July 6, 2018
This collection of poems selected by the author himself does a pretty good job of showing the wonderful talent of Mr. Ferlingetti. I don't understand a lot of it, but I LOVE the rhythm of the poems. It is the rhythm that speaks to me. And I hope to you!
June 25, 2021
aşkı bulacaksın bir akşamüstü onunla karşılanca
November 20, 2021
Pretty good poems, though to be honest I could have done without the line “the munching on the meat-sandwiches of lust”
April 8, 2023
Took my breath away, especially the second half of the collection.
February 2, 2025
"She was a beautiful creature and I
felt like Charlie Chaplin eating his shoe
when her eyes slid over me
the Modern Jazz Quartet
came over the Muzak speakers and
under other circumstances
in a time of revolution for instance
we might have made it."
felt like Charlie Chaplin eating his shoe
when her eyes slid over me
the Modern Jazz Quartet
came over the Muzak speakers and
under other circumstances
in a time of revolution for instance
we might have made it."
November 14, 2017
My favorite book of poetry. If it were not for the raw language (which adds to rather than detracts from the work as an artistic whole), I would want this poem read at my funeral. Standing perhaps only in second place to HOWL, I believe this to be the beat generations poetic tour de force.
June 8, 2009
One of my all time faves! Selected but the mean genius himself.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews