What Is Poetry?

by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Poetry. Having an aversion to the idea of discussing the craft of poetry or the process of creating a poem, Lawrence Ferlinghetti usually mumbles something about It's a trade secret when pressed on the subject. But WHAT IS POETRY? is the closest he has come to formulating an ars poetica, an ongoing project which he is constantly revising and expanding. Lawrence Ferlinghetti was the first Poet Laureate of San Francisco.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

132 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2000

About the author

A 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.

Reviews

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautiful

[Nykea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a different edition, beautiful, handcrafted, and full of artwork.

"Poetry the shortest distance between two humans."

Beautiful.

[J.L. Huffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ferlinghetti's ars poetica: concise, nearly haiku.

[ichibata · Rating 3 out of 5]

my favourite ones:

Like a bowl of roses a poem should not have to be explained

Poetry is pillow-thought after intercourse

It is a bare lightbulb in a homeless hotel illuminating a nakedness of minds and hearts

It is the voice of the Fourth Person Singular

Poetry is not all heroin horses and Rimbaud
It is also the powerless prayers of airline passengers fastening their seatbelts for the final descent

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of free verse statements, significantly overlapping with "Poetry as Insurgent Art." I have too many favorite lines to list and this book is prominently featured on my bookcase's poetry shelf.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few good summary visions of what poetry can mean to us. For example, "Poetry is the anarchy of the senses making sense." and "Poetry is made by evaporating the liquid laughter of youth." and "Poetry should be emotion recollected in emotion."

[Shivani · Rating 5 out of 5]

this poem / book makes me think of emily dickinson - "If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry."

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed...short comments on what is poetry. A book you can pick up whenever for inspiration

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Poetry is/the shook foil of the imagination/It should shine out/and half blind you"

"Poetry is a book of light at night/dispersing clouds of unknowing"

[Juan Fuentes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genial combinación de arte y texto.

https://liblit.com/lawrence-ferlinghe...