“Constantly Risking Absurdity,” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Here’s a guy who’s earned his poem’s title. He went to college, served as a U.S. Naval Officer during WWII, got a Master’s Degree from Columbia, THEN a doctorate in poetry at the Sorbonne, which led him to the growing lit scene in San Francisco. There he was on the ground floor of the whole Beat movement – ultimately publishing some of the freshmen works of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. By all means, call upon this poem’s energy and bravado whenever you want to laugh in the face of the Dark-Side Dwellers!

Constantly Risking Absurdity
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 the day
performing entrachats
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

This poem was brought to my attention by the always risky and unfairly radiant Ann Smith, a teacher with over 30 years experience, a lover of words and passion, and a charter member of The Wild Quills Writers Group! Ann poses the provocative challenge: “What would you do if you could not fail?”

This entry was posted on May 24, 2007 at 5:18 pm and is filed under Li'l Ditties by Famous Scribes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.