Look at the World
Look at the World
Oleg Moskalensky shared a post about being in the world
https://goo.gl/D8Ow2j with excerpts from Alfred Kazin.
What struck me in the read is how in order to write well we must not only observe and notice the life around us but must be in that life.
Here we are. It's summer. What are you doing in the world around you?
Lawrence Ferlinghetti https://goo.gl/7TTs7I
Fortune
has its cookies to give out
which is a good thing
since its been a long time since
that summer in Brooklyn
when they closed off the street
one hot day
and the
FIRE MEN
turned on their hoses
and all the kids ran out in it
in the middle of the street
and there were
maybe a couple dozen of us
out there
with the water squirting up
to the
sky
and all over
us
there was maybe only six of us
kids altogether
running around in our
barefeet and birthday
suits
and I remember Molly but then
the firemen stopped squirting their hoses
all of a sudden and went
back in
their firehouse
and
started playing pinochle again
just as if nothing
had ever
happened
while I remember Molly
looked at me and
ran in
because I guess really we were the only ones there
Due to technical constraints, the formatting of the poem cannot be shown here, but it is essential. See it here http://goo.gl/EutOhn to see the piece as Ferlinghetti wanted you to see it.
I'll be thrilled when Google+ makes it easy to show poetry formatting in posts.
#amwriting #writinglife
That's a bad link there, Zara Altair, comes up with Windows10 error in Chrome message... asking for the usual... you might want to remove that link/reference.
ReplyDeleteOleg Moskalensky Which one? I just tested the links and they all worked.
ReplyDeleteI tried the poem link. Perhaps it's something else. The page came up and after about 30 sec another tab opened etc
ReplyDeleteLove that Ferlinghetti, Zara Altair. I'm right there.
ReplyDeleteI'd add that in order to live well, to live a well-lived life, it is best to be in our life, to live the life we have right now.
Gina Fiedel That one is a favorite for many, many years. Many a high-school and graduate school visit to City Lights where we could meet Ferlinghetti hanging out in his book store.
ReplyDeleteOleg Moskalensky I tested again and went directly to the City Lights website. Here's the full-tilt-boogie web address: http://www.blogcitylights.com/2012/04/20/11-or-fortune-has-its-cookies-to-give-out-by-lawrence-ferlinghetti/
ReplyDeleteWow, Zara Altair, you met him!!!!? What was he like? Have we talked about where you grew up?
ReplyDeletePS- I had no trouble with the link.
ReplyDeleteGina Fiedel Glad to hear that. I had checked several times.
ReplyDeleteSo where did you grow up Zara Altair?
ReplyDeleteGina Fiedel Oh, that's a long list. High school on the peninsula south of San Francisco - apricots and plums now Silicon Valley. :)
ReplyDeleteI conflated some info Zara Altair from Weegee and Ferlinghetti and jumped to an incorrect guess/assumption that you grew up in NYC or Brooklyn. ;)
ReplyDeleteGina Fiedel Nope. High school was Los Altos with sons and daughters of Standford professors and NASA scientists. Zooming up to San Francisco on the train was a wild escape. Beatniks. City Lights. North Beach. I was very young (14-15). In graduate school, a new age of hippies and anti-intellectualism. Ferlinghetti wasn't around City Lights as much. What was he like? A fellow book lover. :)
ReplyDeleteAlways an intellect, Zara Altair. Immersion in smart. Not surprising.
ReplyDeleteI came up in the hippy, art-focused strand. I wouldn't say anti-intellectualism exactly because there was a brand of intellectualism always and certainly in the art world I later became part of, but perhaps lacking in certain disciplines in my teen years. Especially science based.
Gina Fiedel Hahaha. I was the science grade curve disturber. :)
ReplyDelete