This week because Paul
Buhle asked and he was right I wanted to
write a Lawrence Ferlinghetti poem
didn’t until now for no good reason because
we all loved him we all still love him poems
don’t go away because someone does he was
101 thousands of friends thousands
of poems maybe millions City Lights bookstore
who wouldn’t want to be right there nearly everyone
has the same Ferlinghetti story.
I was young when I went to City Lights the first
time and there he was talking to everyone
even me. I’ll bet you’re a poet he said.
And he laughed.
On my first visit to San Francisco I of course went to the City Lights Bookstore, but I don't remember talking to Ferlinghetti. Going there was like those Jews who come to Jerusalem for the first time and have to visit the Western Wall. I did buy a book of poems by Allen Ginsberg that I still have, not Howl.
I hope the laughter was joyous and kind. City Lights Bookstore pilgrimage. A Coney Island of the Mind. Many poems, many steps. Pilgrimages of all sorts.