Ferlinghetti Unfurled

One upon a time I had meant to put up the inspiration for title of the blog, but never did. A tribute my favorite beat poet.

[Constantly Risking Absurdity]

(excerpt)

Constantly risking absurdity
and death
whenever he performs
above the heads
of his audience
the poet like an acrobat
climbs on rime
to a high wire of his own making

[Monet's Lilies Shuddering]

Monet never knew
he was painting his 'Lilies' for
a lady from the Chicago Art Institute
who went to France and filmed
today's lilies
by the 'Bridge at Giverny'
a leaf afloat among them
the film of which now flickers
at the entrance to his framed visions
with a Debussy piano soundtrack
flooding with a new flourescence (fleur-essence?)
and rooms and rooms of
water lilies.

Monet caught a Cloud in a Pond
in 1903
and got a first glimpse
of its lilies
and for twenty years returned
again and again to paint them
which now gives us the impression
that he floated thru life on them
and their reflections
which he also didn't know
we would have occasion
to reflect upon

Anymore than he could know
that John Cage would be playing a
'Cello with Melody-driven Electronics'
tonight at the University of Chicago
And making those Lilies shudder and shed
black light.

I love the last two lines of the first stanza

"and rooms and rooms of water lilies..."

These aren't in exact form becasue I'm having trouble setting tabs in html. Read these and other works in one of my favorite collectionsThese Are My Rivers: New & Selected Poems 1955-1993