Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Constantly Risking Absurdity (#15)

BY LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI

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

and balancing on eyebeams

                                     above a sea of faces

             paces his way

                               to the other side of day

    performing entrechats

                               and sleight-of-foot tricks

and other high theatrics

                               and all without mistaking

                     any thing

                               for what it may not be

       For he's the super realist

                                     who must perforce perceive

                   taut truth

                                 before the taking of each stance or step

in his supposed advance

                                  toward that still higher perch

where Beauty stands and waits

                                     with gravity

                                                to start her death-defying leap

      And he

             a little charleychaplin man

                                           who may or may not catch

               her fair eternal form

                                     spreadeagled in the empty air

                  of existence

When this poem was written, it was one of the sparks of the "San Francisco literary renaissance of the 1950s and the subsequent "Beat" movement." Ferlinghetti writes to defy popular political movements and writes like jazz-a very contemporary style where the poetry reflects either the subject matter (including the shape of the poem) and or adds the shape as a stylistic effect adding emphasis and meaning to the poem. Like in "Constantly Risking Absurdity" Ferlinghetti uses a scattered line placement to suggest an almost crazy look to the poem itself, but because of the poem's words, the poem remains connected just like its "constantly risking absurdity".  Ferlinghetti also uses enjambment to have the flow of the poem seem endless just like the act of writing poetry as a never ending struggle and balancing act. Imagery is also used to draw comparisons for everyone to understand. By using three different examples describing poetry authors, the tight rope walker, the realist, and the charleychaplin man, he connects with different levels of education and age with the audience. Reaching those differences was a large part of the characteristics of that time period and of Ferlinghetti's writings. To me, the meaning of the poem is describing how difficult it is to actually write poetry. Most people don't necessarily understand the art of composing a poem that is deep in meaning and power. This poem addresses that issue for Ferlinghetti's readers that might not appreciate other authors as much because the poems just seem like jumbled words that anyone could put together.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/lawrence-ferlinghetti

This is just some Biographical information on Lawrence Ferlinghetti and his accomplishments taken from http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/lawrence-ferlinghetti.

On March 24, 1919, Lawrence Ferlinghetti was born in Yonkers, New York. After spending his early childhood in France, he received his BA from the University of North Carolina, an MA from Columbia University, and a PhD from the Sorbonne.

During World War II he served in the US Naval Reserve and was sent to Nagasaki shortly after it was bombed. He married in 1951 and has one daughter and one son.

In 1953, Ferlinghetti and Peter Martin began to publish City Lights magazine. They also opened the City Lights Books Shop in San Francisco to help support the magazine. In 1955, they launched City Light Publishing, a book-publishing venture. City Lights became known as the heart of the “Beat” movement, which included writers such as Kenneth Rexroth,Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac.

Ferlinghetti is the author of more than thirty books of poetry, including Time of Useful Consciousness (New Directions, 2012); Poetry as Insurgent Art (2007); Americus, Book I(2004); San Francisco Poems (2002); How to Paint Sunlight(2001); A Far Rockaway of the Heart (1997); These Are My Rivers: New & Selected Poems, 1955-1993 (1993); Over All the Obscene Boundaries: European Poems & Transitions (1984);Who Are We Now? (1976); The Secret Meaning of Things(1969); and A Coney Island of the Mind (1958). He has translated the work of a number of poets including Nicanor Parra, Jacques Prevert, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. Ferlinghetti is also the author more than eight plays and of the novelsLove in the Days of Rage (1988) and Her (1966).

In 1994, San Francisco renamed a street in his honor. He was also named the first Poet Laureate of San Francisco in 1998. His other awards and honors include the lifetime achievement award from the National Book Critics Circle in 2000, the Frost Medal in 2003, and The Literarian Award in 2005 presented “for outstanding service to the American literary community.”

Currently, Ferlinghetti writes a weekly column for the San Francisco Chronicle. He also continues to operate the City Lights bookstore, and he travels frequently to participate in literary conferences and poetry readings.