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- Lawrence Ferlinghetti is a
more complicated individual

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00:00:56,690 --> 00:00:59,560
than we are used to having
in American writing.

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- He was the most
accessible to me,

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00:01:01,095 --> 00:01:03,331
the one that reached
me and moved me.

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00:01:03,331 --> 00:01:07,335
- Lawrence Ferlinghetti
is an old-ass anarchist.

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- Lawrence is a bohemian,
became a leftist,

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00:01:12,206 --> 00:01:13,841
politically conscious.

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And then he opened up a
bookstore to reflect that.

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- Like many people,
Lawrence has many facets,

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many faces, many personas.

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- [McClure] Lawrence is
probably the most popular

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00:01:27,488 --> 00:01:28,789
modern poet.

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- [Lebel] Poet is
only one of them.

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He is also the publisher,
the activist, the painter.

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- [Voiceover] His heroes were

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00:01:35,629 --> 00:01:38,632
Charlie Chaplin and
Jacques Prevert.

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- And as a publisher, he has
brought together one of the

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most amazing publishing
houses in the world.

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- [Lebel] Lawrence and
the gang at City Lights,

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they made the book store,
a center of a village.

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- Lawrence was the
mayor of North Beach,

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not question about
it. He kept it alive.

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- And because he
won his legal case..

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He opened up the
doors for all us

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to celebrate the rights
of first amendment,

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freedom of speech.

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- His willingness
to stay involved and
keep foraging ahead,

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and keeping it sort
of that fire burning,

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with new people always
looking for the next voice

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and continuing to publish,
it isn't stuck in the past,

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it isn't some 50s,
60s only institution.

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It's as alive as anything.

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- Ferlinghetti is still
grappling and still

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speaking out and using poetry as

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kind of the ultimate
freedom of speech.

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- I am waiting
for my case to come up,

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and I am waiting for
a rebirth of wonder,

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and I am waiting for someone
to really discover America

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and I am waiting
for the discovery

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00:02:51,605 --> 00:02:54,442
of a new symbolic
western frontier,

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and I am waiting for
the American eagle

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to really spread its wings, and
straighten up and fly right,

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and I am waiting for
the war to be fought

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which will make the
world safe for anarchy,

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and I am waiting for
the final withering away

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of all governments,

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and I am perpetually waiting
for rebirth of wonder.

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Here we are, City
Lights Bookstore,

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center of the universe,
San Francisco.

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When I arrived in the 1950s,

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citizens didn't seem
to consider themselves

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00:03:26,374 --> 00:03:28,041
part of the United States.

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It was still a last frontier,

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in more ways than one.

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It may still be, and so
that's why the youth today

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are still attracted to this.

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It's a way out of American
corporate mono-culture,

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and materialist
consciousness of the country.

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People are still coming
for some reason or other.

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Maybe the gold rush
isn't over after all.

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- I mean, what the hell
was City Lights Books?

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It was a place where you had
a window into literature,

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political ideas that were
basically being ignored.

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- In the 60s, the radicals
from Berkely would come there

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to meet, to plan demonstrations.

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00:04:02,042 --> 00:04:04,077
The radicals from San
Francisco would go there.

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We'd all get together
and talk about things,

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speak about what we could do.

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And at the same time, we
could sit around in the chairs

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and leaf through small
fanzine type poetry magazines

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00:04:14,788 --> 00:04:16,890
while we were discussing
the serious issues

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that we were concerned with.

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00:04:18,759 --> 00:04:20,561
- This wasn't the
center of wild drinking

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00:04:20,561 --> 00:04:21,995
or drugs or anything.

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You know, it was a place
where you sat down in a chair,

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and you read a fucking book.

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00:04:26,066 --> 00:04:28,702
A guy like Lenny Bruce
would come in to see a book.

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00:04:28,702 --> 00:04:31,405
He's coming in before a
show to check something,

79
00:04:31,405 --> 00:04:35,776
some writer, some legal book,
censorship, first amendment.

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00:04:35,776 --> 00:04:38,679
And so this place was
a serious resource.

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00:04:38,679 --> 00:04:41,649
- It was like
where the minds went to meet

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00:04:41,649 --> 00:04:43,784
and to talk over
what we had done

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00:04:43,784 --> 00:04:46,086
and what we wished to do.

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00:04:46,086 --> 00:04:48,889
- You know, if our
amendments had addresses,

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00:04:48,889 --> 00:04:52,159
the address of the first
amendment would be right here

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00:04:52,159 --> 00:04:54,362
at City Lights Books.

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00:04:54,362 --> 00:04:56,229
You can find respect for
the first amendment in other

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00:04:56,229 --> 00:04:59,667
book stores and other publishing
houses across the nation,

89
00:04:59,667 --> 00:05:01,168
but you will never see it,

90
00:05:01,168 --> 00:05:04,071
the first amendment, so
fully, so happily ensconced

91
00:05:04,071 --> 00:05:08,041
as it is here at City Lights
in the city of San Francisco.

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Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
congratulations,

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00:05:10,578 --> 00:05:13,280
literature, culture,
the first amendment

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00:05:13,280 --> 00:05:14,882
is better because of you.

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00:05:18,819 --> 00:05:21,989
- The concept of
City Lights Bookstore

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00:05:23,256 --> 00:05:26,326
in addition to the
press changing our idea

97
00:05:26,326 --> 00:05:29,296
of what a book was, or
what a book of poetry was,

98
00:05:29,296 --> 00:05:31,999
also changed our idea of
what a book store was.

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00:05:31,999 --> 00:05:33,801
A very democratic idea, right?

100
00:05:33,801 --> 00:05:36,470
The same way with making the
books inexpensive and portable,

101
00:05:36,470 --> 00:05:38,338
breaking open the
doors of the bookstore,

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00:05:38,338 --> 00:05:39,940
allowing people to come
in and sit and read,

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00:05:39,940 --> 00:05:41,975
it was all the sense
of bringing literature

104
00:05:41,975 --> 00:05:46,547
out of kind of T. S. Elliot
mold, taking off it's tie,

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00:05:46,547 --> 00:05:49,082
putting on some
strange looking pants

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00:05:49,082 --> 00:05:51,118
and bringing it to the people.

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00:05:51,118 --> 00:05:52,820
- We became notorious

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for publishing the beat poets.

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But the beats were only one
generation of dissident writers

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that we published
at City Lights.

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00:06:01,128 --> 00:06:02,663
Writers like Bukowski.

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00:06:02,663 --> 00:06:04,765
We published Sam Shepard.

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Dissident thought,
not necessarily
political all the time.

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- He, as a publisher,

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00:06:10,103 --> 00:06:12,239
had an enormous vision,

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starting very small,

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building from the
small poem book,

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later to novels to translations.

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His international fiction
line is fantastic.

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- As a publisher,
City Lights has always been

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totally independent, never
taking any government grants,

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or any other kind of grants.

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Our main focus is
on radical politics,

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radical deep ecology,

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feminism and poetry.

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- There was this kind of
confluence of the revolutionary

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openness of the
poetry and a very,

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a sort of disrespect
for tradition

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and a sense of breaking through,

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kind of rolling a
grenade into the library

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and breaking a convention.

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- That's what his
mission has been.

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To create a publishing apparatus

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which published him and
a lot of other people.

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And that's what you have to do.

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He created an iconic publishing
force in City Lights.

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That's what Ferlinghetti did.

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- Well, when I got
into the scene here,

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I discovered North Beach.

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Took me quite a while.

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I had a painting
studio starting in '52

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in Nine Mission street,
the Audiffred buildling,

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studio I inherited
from Hassel Smith.

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I had an old Austin car and
I came up Columbus and I saw

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some guy putting up a
sign right here that said

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Pocket Book Shop.

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So, for some reason, I
parked, I don't know why.

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Except my old friend George
Whitman had just started

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his first version
of what's now called

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00:07:51,238 --> 00:07:53,607
Shakespeare and
Company in Paris.

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And it was a used book
store, and I said, well,

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that's what I'd like to do,

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have a used book
store, sit in the back,

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read under a shade and

155
00:08:01,849 --> 00:08:03,917
groan if anybody interrupted me.

156
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So, I came across the street
and I introduced myself,

157
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turned out his name was
Peter D. Martin and he had

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a little magazine
called City Lights.

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It was the very first
pop culture magazine.

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So, I said, what are doing?

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He said, I'm starting
a pocket book shop.

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And there was a brilliant idea.

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There was no paperback
bookstores in this country.

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It was just the beginning
of what became known as

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the quality
paperback revolution.

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He said they had 500 dollars,
I said well, I've got 500, so

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it started over a handshake.

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- In 1955 at the Six
Gallery in San Francisco,

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five poets got together.

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- Lamantia, McClure, myself,

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Philip Whalen, Gary Snyder

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with Kenneth Rexroth
as the moderator,

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got together and gave a
reading at the Six Gallery

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in San Francisco,

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where I first read Howl.

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And where all of us
as a poetic group

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all got together
on the same stage

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with Kerouac in the audience,

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00:09:12,519 --> 00:09:14,354
with Neal Cassady
in the audience.

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- I think we discovered 
what the meaning of

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reading out loud was.

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None of expected to have a
publisher, but the idea was

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speak to people directly

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with poetry that
couldn't be published.

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And lo and behold, Howl,

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which certainly
couldn't be published,

187
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was published by
Lawrence Ferlinghetti

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who was there that night

189
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and sent a telegram
to Allen the next day

190
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asking Allen to publish Howl.

191
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- Now, as you may have
seen in the papers,

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collector of customs,
Chester McFee,

193
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confiscated 520 copies of a
paper bound volume of poetry

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entitled Howl and Other
Poems by Allen Gingsberg.

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You wouldn't want your
children to come across it.

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- The juvenile department

197
00:09:57,330 --> 00:09:59,266
of the San Francisco
police department

198
00:09:59,266 --> 00:10:02,770
arrested Lawrence's bookstore
manager that evening

199
00:10:02,770 --> 00:10:04,938
whose name was Shig Morau,

200
00:10:04,938 --> 00:10:06,840
and also put out a
warrant for the arrest

201
00:10:06,840 --> 00:10:09,076
of Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
who wasn't there that day.

202
00:10:09,076 --> 00:10:10,911
Lawrence turned himself in,

203
00:10:10,911 --> 00:10:14,948
and was subjected to a trial
that they thought was going

204
00:10:14,948 --> 00:10:16,650
to be a disaster.

205
00:10:16,650 --> 00:10:20,120
- Lawrence had anticipated that
and he had gone to the ACLU

206
00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:22,455
and asked whether the
ACLU would defend him

207
00:10:22,455 --> 00:10:25,225
in the event he ran into
this kind of situation.

208
00:10:25,225 --> 00:10:27,795
Ernie Besig, the executive
director of the ACLU at the time

209
00:10:27,795 --> 00:10:30,330
said of course, free
speech is free speech.

210
00:10:30,330 --> 00:10:31,799
We will defend this.

211
00:10:31,799 --> 00:10:34,802
I was a young lawyer and
I was handed the task

212
00:10:34,802 --> 00:10:37,871
of preparing the
constitutional argument.

213
00:10:37,871 --> 00:10:40,273
- [Morgan] Judge Horn had
just been through a big trial

214
00:10:40,273 --> 00:10:41,508
in San Francisco.

215
00:10:41,508 --> 00:10:43,777
Some teenage shoplifters
who he had sentenced

216
00:10:43,777 --> 00:10:46,246
to see the movie "The
Ten Commandments."

217
00:10:46,246 --> 00:10:48,916
He was a conservative,
born-again Christian who

218
00:10:48,916 --> 00:10:50,851
took no nonsense from people.

219
00:10:50,851 --> 00:10:54,354
And so, of course, they felt
they had lost the case for Howl

220
00:10:54,354 --> 00:10:56,389
just by the selection
of the judge.

221
00:10:56,389 --> 00:10:59,226
Lawrence had laid his
whole career on the line.

222
00:10:59,226 --> 00:11:01,594
He risked not just a
heavy fine, though,

223
00:11:01,594 --> 00:11:03,563
he risked a prison sentence.

224
00:11:03,563 --> 00:11:05,232
Allen was overseas at the time,

225
00:11:05,232 --> 00:11:07,534
never even came
back for the trial.

226
00:11:07,534 --> 00:11:09,669
It was more of a novelty to him.

227
00:11:09,669 --> 00:11:11,238
He realized that it was

228
00:11:11,238 --> 00:11:13,807
an important even
in American history,

229
00:11:13,807 --> 00:11:16,409
but he didn't realize the
serious trouble that Lawrence

230
00:11:16,409 --> 00:11:18,578
could actually have gotten into.

231
00:11:18,578 --> 00:11:20,080
-Lawrence Ferlinghetti,

232
00:11:20,080 --> 00:11:22,716
bookstore proprietor, said
there were four-letter words

233
00:11:22,716 --> 00:11:26,386
in the poems but it is easily
defendable as work of art.

234
00:11:26,386 --> 00:11:31,258
It's a first breath of
fresh air in American poetry

235
00:11:31,258 --> 00:11:33,360
in almost a generation.

236
00:11:33,360 --> 00:11:36,930
This is the way official
San Francisco welcomes

237
00:11:36,930 --> 00:11:39,867
this book of incomparable power.

238
00:11:43,904 --> 00:11:46,639
- I saw the best
minds of my generation

239
00:11:46,639 --> 00:11:48,308
destroyed by madness

240
00:11:49,409 --> 00:11:51,678
starving, hysterical, naked

241
00:11:53,646 --> 00:11:56,449
dragging themselves through
the negro streets at dawn

242
00:11:56,449 --> 00:11:59,019
looking for an angry fix

243
00:11:59,019 --> 00:12:01,021
angel-headed hipsters

244
00:12:01,021 --> 00:12:03,590
burning for the ancient,
heavenly connection

245
00:12:03,590 --> 00:12:07,660
to the starry dynamo in
the machinery of night

246
00:12:07,660 --> 00:12:10,931
who poverty and tatters
and hollow-eyed and high

247
00:12:10,931 --> 00:12:13,433
sat up smoking in the
supernatural darkness

248
00:12:13,433 --> 00:12:15,803
of cold-water flats
floating across the tops of

249
00:12:15,803 --> 00:12:17,971
cities contemplating jazz.

250
00:12:19,739 --> 00:12:22,442
- Judge Horn turned
out to be a very fair judge

251
00:12:22,442 --> 00:12:25,846
and he ruled after the trial
that Howl was not obscene

252
00:12:25,846 --> 00:12:28,748
because it had some
redeeming social value.

253
00:12:28,748 --> 00:12:31,351
- It's not the poet but
what he observes

254
00:12:31,351 --> 00:12:33,854
which is revealed as obscene.

255
00:12:33,854 --> 00:12:35,722
The sad waste of Howl,

256
00:12:35,722 --> 00:12:38,458
of the sad waste of
the mechanized world,

257
00:12:38,458 --> 00:12:42,295
lost among atom bombs
and insane nationalisms.

258
00:12:44,031 --> 00:12:46,333
- Howl gave a legal president
that really important

259
00:12:46,333 --> 00:12:49,236
for publishers who
were already active,

260
00:12:49,236 --> 00:12:51,171
and also kind of was an
inspiration, I think,

261
00:12:51,171 --> 00:12:55,608
because the Howl trial created
so much national publicity.

262
00:12:55,608 --> 00:12:58,311
I think for younger people
it's difficult to imagine

263
00:12:58,311 --> 00:13:01,081
the impact the three or
four page pictorial spread

264
00:13:01,081 --> 00:13:02,816
in Life magazine
had in those days.

265
00:13:02,816 --> 00:13:04,351
That was huge.

266
00:13:04,351 --> 00:13:06,219
So, it was kind of important
in the sense that it

267
00:13:06,219 --> 00:13:09,122
brought a lot of attention
to a really critical

268
00:13:09,122 --> 00:13:12,225
point of principle,
freedom of speech.

269
00:13:12,225 --> 00:13:14,594
- Lawrence Ferlinghetti
kicked open the door

270
00:13:14,594 --> 00:13:15,795
to free up publishing

271
00:13:15,795 --> 00:13:17,998
at a time when it
really needed to happen.

272
00:13:17,998 --> 00:13:20,100
He risked a great deal
for a lot of books

273
00:13:20,100 --> 00:13:22,335
that couldn't have been
published in this country.

274
00:13:22,335 --> 00:13:25,338
Many books that are
now considered classics

275
00:13:25,338 --> 00:13:27,941
can be freely read,
carried in your back pocket

276
00:13:27,941 --> 00:13:32,112
and taught in almost every
university in the country.

277
00:13:33,580 --> 00:13:35,748
- This is called Autobiography.

278
00:13:56,203 --> 00:13:58,071
I am leading a quiet life

279
00:13:58,071 --> 00:14:00,240
in Mike's Place every day

280
00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:01,408
watching the champs

281
00:14:01,408 --> 00:14:03,176
of the Dante Billiard Parlor

282
00:14:03,176 --> 00:14:06,113
and the French pinball addicts.

283
00:14:06,113 --> 00:14:07,447
And I have read somewhere

284
00:14:07,447 --> 00:14:09,182
the Meaning of Existence

285
00:14:09,182 --> 00:14:12,152
yet have forgotten
just exactly where

286
00:14:12,152 --> 00:14:13,020
But I am the man

287
00:14:13,020 --> 00:14:14,554
And I'll be there.

288
00:14:14,554 --> 00:14:15,956
And I may cause the lips

289
00:14:15,956 --> 00:14:17,090
of those who are asleep

290
00:14:17,090 --> 00:14:18,225
to speak.

291
00:14:18,225 --> 00:14:19,659
And I may make my notebooks

292
00:14:19,659 --> 00:14:21,594
into sheaves of grass.

293
00:14:21,594 --> 00:14:22,930
And I may write my own

294
00:14:22,930 --> 00:14:24,331
eponymous epitaph

295
00:14:24,331 --> 00:14:26,099
instructing the horsemen

296
00:14:26,099 --> 00:14:26,934
to pass.

297
00:14:39,846 --> 00:14:43,816
- When Lawrence was born in
1919, his father had just died.

298
00:14:43,816 --> 00:14:47,820
And Clemence, his mother,
had a nervous breakdown.

299
00:14:47,820 --> 00:14:51,358
And so she went to a mental
institution near New York.

300
00:14:51,358 --> 00:14:53,726
- Our Aunt Emily was French
and she took me

301
00:14:53,726 --> 00:14:55,895
to France with her when
I was about a week old

302
00:14:55,895 --> 00:14:57,097
and we lived near Strasborg.

303
00:14:57,097 --> 00:14:59,266
I don't think we
came back to America

304
00:14:59,266 --> 00:15:00,733
until I was about six.

305
00:15:00,733 --> 00:15:03,937
I didn't even know I had
four brothers at that time.

306
00:15:03,937 --> 00:15:05,372
- Of course he was convinced

307
00:15:05,372 --> 00:15:09,309
that Emily was his true
mother and that he was French.

308
00:15:09,309 --> 00:15:12,179
But after four
years, around 1923,

309
00:15:12,179 --> 00:15:15,382
Emily decided to go
back to New York.

310
00:15:15,382 --> 00:15:16,716
But, she hadn't enough money.

311
00:15:16,716 --> 00:15:18,952
She wasn't feeding
Lawrence enough.

312
00:15:18,952 --> 00:15:21,621
And soon the social
system took the child.

313
00:15:21,621 --> 00:15:24,791
And Lawrence was just four
years old and ended up

314
00:15:24,791 --> 00:15:28,061
in an orphanage in
Chappaqua near New York.

315
00:15:28,061 --> 00:15:30,397
- The photo of Emily,

316
00:15:30,397 --> 00:15:32,499
mad and elegant,

317
00:15:32,499 --> 00:15:34,834
thinking herself a great writer

318
00:15:34,834 --> 00:15:37,470
with something to
say to the world

319
00:15:37,470 --> 00:15:39,606
in her shadow hat

320
00:15:39,606 --> 00:15:41,408
having her picture taken

321
00:15:41,408 --> 00:15:43,776
with the child
she always wanted.

322
00:15:43,776 --> 00:15:45,012
She had lovers,

323
00:15:45,979 --> 00:15:47,847
but no child.

324
00:15:47,847 --> 00:15:50,950
She stood by the
bedside and took me.

325
00:15:52,119 --> 00:15:54,754
- Emily found a job
as private teacher

326
00:15:54,754 --> 00:15:58,358
at the Bislands, a very rich
family living in Bronxville,

327
00:15:58,358 --> 00:15:59,626
near New York.

328
00:15:59,626 --> 00:16:02,495
- I went along with her
and there was a butler.

329
00:16:02,495 --> 00:16:03,763
There was a Swedish cook.

330
00:16:03,763 --> 00:16:05,932
There was a chauffeur.

331
00:16:05,932 --> 00:16:08,468
And there was a gardener,
an old Italian gardener,

332
00:16:08,468 --> 00:16:11,671
who always smelled of
garlic and pepperoni.

333
00:16:11,671 --> 00:16:13,806
And he lived in a
shack in the garden.

334
00:16:13,806 --> 00:16:15,408
He was a hunchback.

335
00:16:16,609 --> 00:16:20,113
It's right out of
Dickens. (laughs)

336
00:16:20,113 --> 00:16:24,051
- After a year, Emily
during her free day,

337
00:16:24,051 --> 00:16:26,886
just went out and
never came back.

338
00:16:28,521 --> 00:16:31,524
- I was writing my French
aunt when I was 12 years old,

339
00:16:31,524 --> 00:16:35,362
that's when I discovered
I could really write.

340
00:16:36,629 --> 00:16:40,800
She was in France, I
was back in New York.

341
00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:42,269
And, so That's how I,

342
00:16:42,269 --> 00:16:46,339
the first writing I did was
to my French Aunt Emily.

343
00:16:46,339 --> 00:16:47,807
She answered for a while

344
00:16:47,807 --> 00:16:50,177
I mean, I remember
getting letters from her.

345
00:16:50,177 --> 00:16:52,579
Then she really went crazy.

346
00:16:52,579 --> 00:16:55,915
I don't know whether
she had insomnia or

347
00:16:56,883 --> 00:16:58,218
amnesia or what.

348
00:16:59,519 --> 00:17:01,188
She just disappeared.

349
00:17:02,422 --> 00:17:04,224
Never heard from her again.

350
00:17:04,224 --> 00:17:05,892
Nor did anyone else.

351
00:17:07,327 --> 00:17:08,561
Emily Monsonto.

352
00:17:10,029 --> 00:17:12,765
And saw her never again.

353
00:17:12,765 --> 00:17:15,235
And never saw her again

354
00:17:15,235 --> 00:17:18,138
except in the back
of old boutiques

355
00:17:18,971 --> 00:17:20,740
peered into now again

356
00:17:22,575 --> 00:17:25,978
with haunting glance
in the Rue De Seine.

357
00:17:31,418 --> 00:17:33,420
The Bislands didn't
adopt me legally

358
00:17:33,420 --> 00:17:37,390
but they had had a son named
Lawrence who died in infancy

359
00:17:37,390 --> 00:17:39,759
and I came along
right after that.

360
00:17:39,759 --> 00:17:42,195
Luckily, my name was Lawrence.

361
00:17:42,195 --> 00:17:44,297
Anna Lawrence Bisland
was a daughter

362
00:17:44,297 --> 00:17:46,099
of William van Duzer Lawrence

363
00:17:46,099 --> 00:17:48,135
who founded Sarah
Lawrence College.

364
00:17:48,135 --> 00:17:49,769
She married Presley Bisland

365
00:17:49,769 --> 00:17:52,372
who was from
Natchez, Mississippi.

366
00:17:52,372 --> 00:17:54,941
He always wanted to be a writer.

367
00:17:54,941 --> 00:17:56,909
He really was of Mark
Twain's generation

368
00:17:56,909 --> 00:17:58,511
and he was a very handsome man.

369
00:17:58,511 --> 00:18:00,012
He was very witty.

370
00:18:00,012 --> 00:18:02,515
The library was full of
Greek and Roman classics

371
00:18:02,515 --> 00:18:05,785
also bound volumes of all
the great English novelists

372
00:18:05,785 --> 00:18:07,420
like Thackeray and Dickens.

373
00:18:07,420 --> 00:18:09,556
That's what I grew up
with was this library

374
00:18:09,556 --> 00:18:12,259
and at the dinner table
I would recite the poems

375
00:18:12,259 --> 00:18:13,893
that he gave me to learn

376
00:18:13,893 --> 00:18:16,729
and he'd give me silver
dollars for learning the poems

377
00:18:16,729 --> 00:18:18,365
like great old chestnuts, like

378
00:18:18,365 --> 00:18:21,734
Horatius at the Bridge
and things like that.

379
00:18:21,734 --> 00:18:25,305
Eventually, I ended up going
to Bronxville Public School.

380
00:18:25,305 --> 00:18:27,440
Took me a couple off years
to become Eagle Scout

381
00:18:27,440 --> 00:18:29,142
maybe when I was about 14.

382
00:18:29,142 --> 00:18:31,244
Trouble was, the same
week I made Eagle Scout,

383
00:18:31,244 --> 00:18:33,346
I got busted for
stealing pencils

384
00:18:33,346 --> 00:18:35,715
from the five and
ten cent store.

385
00:18:35,715 --> 00:18:37,517
Well, I was shipped
off to Mount Herman,

386
00:18:37,517 --> 00:18:40,853
which was a working farm
school at that time.

387
00:18:40,853 --> 00:18:42,889
Which I got sent
to in Massachusetts

388
00:18:42,889 --> 00:18:45,392
to straighten me out after
I was a delinquent juvenile

389
00:18:45,392 --> 00:18:47,560
on the streets of
Bronxville, New York.

390
00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:49,662
My roommate there,
he had two books.

391
00:18:49,662 --> 00:18:51,698
His Holy Bible was
one pocket, he had

392
00:18:51,698 --> 00:18:54,801
The Sun Also Rises
by Ernest Hemingway.

393
00:18:54,801 --> 00:18:56,002
In the other pocket he had

394
00:18:56,002 --> 00:18:57,937
Thomas Wolfe's Look
Howeward, Angel.

395
00:18:57,937 --> 00:18:59,939
So, I read Look Howeward Angel.

396
00:18:59,939 --> 00:19:02,509
It happens in Pulpit
Hill, North Carolina.

397
00:19:02,509 --> 00:19:04,511
Well, Pulpit Hill
is Chapel Hill.

398
00:19:04,511 --> 00:19:07,814
So, I went to Chapel Hill
because Thomas Wolfe went there.

399
00:19:07,814 --> 00:19:09,516
I worked on the
Carolina Magazine,

400
00:19:09,516 --> 00:19:11,651
which Thomas Wolfe
had worked on.

401
00:19:11,651 --> 00:19:15,822
And unfortunately, I wasn't
able to write like him.

402
00:19:20,193 --> 00:19:22,762
My father died
before I was born,

403
00:19:22,762 --> 00:19:24,497
dropped dead of a heart
attack when, I believe,

404
00:19:24,497 --> 00:19:25,332
he was 42.

405
00:19:26,499 --> 00:19:29,902
He came over probably
in steerage from Italy,

406
00:19:29,902 --> 00:19:31,838
about the turn of the century.

407
00:19:31,838 --> 00:19:33,740
His name was Carlo.

408
00:19:33,740 --> 00:19:36,108
Carlo Ferlinghetti.

409
00:19:54,894 --> 00:19:58,365
Driving a cardboard
automobile without a license

410
00:19:58,365 --> 00:20:02,168
at the turn of the century,
my father ran into my mother

411
00:20:02,168 --> 00:20:04,904
on a fun ride at Coney Island.

412
00:20:04,904 --> 00:20:06,439
Having spied each other eating

413
00:20:06,439 --> 00:20:09,342
in a French boarding
house nearby

414
00:20:09,342 --> 00:20:11,578
and having decided
right there and then

415
00:20:11,578 --> 00:20:13,746
that she was for him entirely

416
00:20:13,746 --> 00:20:17,149
he followed her into the
play land of that evening

417
00:20:17,149 --> 00:20:18,785
where the headlong meeting

418
00:20:18,785 --> 00:20:21,388
of their ephemeral
flesh on wheels

419
00:20:21,388 --> 00:20:24,223
hurdled them forever together

420
00:20:24,223 --> 00:20:26,393
and I now in the back seat

421
00:20:27,360 --> 00:20:29,429
of their eternity

422
00:20:29,429 --> 00:20:31,864
reaching out to embrace them.

423
00:20:36,703 --> 00:20:38,638
The Ferlinghetti family
had never told me

424
00:20:38,638 --> 00:20:40,840
that had shortened
the name to Ferling

425
00:20:40,840 --> 00:20:43,042
and just before I
published my first book

426
00:20:43,042 --> 00:20:46,245
I restored the name
to Ferlinghetti.

427
00:21:01,528 --> 00:21:04,096
In a dream within a dream

428
00:21:04,096 --> 00:21:05,432
I dreamt a dream

429
00:21:06,466 --> 00:21:08,801
of all the animals dying out

430
00:21:11,638 --> 00:21:15,141
All the animals
everywhere dying and dying

431
00:21:18,311 --> 00:21:22,349
The wild animals, the
long haired animals,

432
00:21:22,349 --> 00:21:25,452
winged animals,
feathered animals,

433
00:21:25,452 --> 00:21:28,355
clawed and sealed
and furry animals

434
00:21:29,656 --> 00:21:31,524
rutting and dying

435
00:21:31,524 --> 00:21:32,359
and dying

436
00:21:34,761 --> 00:21:37,497
in shrinking rain forests

437
00:21:37,497 --> 00:21:40,066
in piney woods and high sierras

438
00:21:41,634 --> 00:21:45,137
on shrinking prairies
and tumbleweed mesas

439
00:21:50,009 --> 00:21:53,813
captured, beaten,
starved and stunned

440
00:21:53,813 --> 00:21:56,215
cornered and traded

441
00:21:56,215 --> 00:21:59,085
species not meant to be nomadic

442
00:21:59,085 --> 00:22:01,187
wandering rootless as man.

443
00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:11,130
Ferlinghetti, liberal poet
in search of his father.

444
00:22:14,734 --> 00:22:16,869
I was arrested
trying to see what

445
00:22:16,869 --> 00:22:19,772
the inside of the
house looked like

446
00:22:20,940 --> 00:22:23,910
where my father was
born in Brescia.

447
00:22:23,910 --> 00:22:28,080
This paper, just one of the
national press stories about

448
00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:30,650
my bust in Italy and
it included a copy

449
00:22:30,650 --> 00:22:33,185
of my father's
birth certificate.

450
00:22:33,185 --> 00:22:35,922
All my life, I've been looking
for my father's birth place,

451
00:22:35,922 --> 00:22:38,057
looking for my father,
and when I find it,

452
00:22:38,057 --> 00:22:42,128
I'm driven away by the
people who live there now.

453
00:22:49,536 --> 00:22:53,172
See these ruins of a
while civilization there.

454
00:22:53,172 --> 00:22:55,341
People ate and slept here.

455
00:22:57,644 --> 00:23:00,447
They did everything else here,
in that ruin right there,

456
00:23:00,447 --> 00:23:02,114
they had people

457
00:23:02,114 --> 00:23:06,285
lying down together, eating
together, sleeping together.

458
00:23:08,721 --> 00:23:09,889
Now, all gone.

459
00:23:11,991 --> 00:23:12,825
Finito.

460
00:23:19,265 --> 00:23:21,868
Let me in, I want to pray!

461
00:23:21,868 --> 00:23:23,770
Let me in, I must pray.

462
00:23:25,438 --> 00:23:27,173
Modern man must pray.

463
00:23:43,022 --> 00:23:44,457
El dio invisible.

464
00:23:46,425 --> 00:23:48,360
It was very brilliant of
the Catholics to invent

465
00:23:48,360 --> 00:23:51,163
a God that can't be seen.

466
00:23:51,163 --> 00:23:53,466
So you can't prove he
exists or he doesn't exist,

467
00:23:53,466 --> 00:23:55,468
cause you can't see him.

468
00:23:57,403 --> 00:24:01,407
If you could see him, he
wouldn't be God anymore.

469
00:24:03,042 --> 00:24:05,545
Well, when I was graduating
from Chapel Hill,

470
00:24:05,545 --> 00:24:06,779
all the guys I knew

471
00:24:06,779 --> 00:24:08,748
were volunteering for
the armed services.

472
00:24:08,748 --> 00:24:11,984
It was the only socially
acceptable thing to do.

473
00:24:11,984 --> 00:24:14,754
I had never heard of a
conscientious objector.

474
00:24:14,754 --> 00:24:16,523
On the east coast, we
didn't have such things

475
00:24:16,523 --> 00:24:17,924
as far as I knew.

476
00:24:19,058 --> 00:24:21,427
After I signed up in
the Navy, I was sent to

477
00:24:21,427 --> 00:24:25,331
midshipmen school in
Chicago in the fall.

478
00:24:25,331 --> 00:24:28,234
When I graduated, I was an
ensign, and two days later,

479
00:24:28,234 --> 00:24:31,337
I was standing out of New
York Harbor on my first ship,

480
00:24:31,337 --> 00:24:33,806
which was J. P.
Morgan III's yacht

481
00:24:33,806 --> 00:24:35,708
which he had leased to the Navy.

482
00:24:35,708 --> 00:24:37,610
And the Navy gave it
a coat of gray paint

483
00:24:37,610 --> 00:24:40,312
and commissioned him
as Skipper of the ship.

484
00:24:40,312 --> 00:24:42,615
We had 50 pound
sticks of dynamite,

485
00:24:42,615 --> 00:24:44,116
those were our depth charges.

486
00:24:44,116 --> 00:24:46,786
We were supposed to light the
fuse and throw it overboard.

487
00:24:48,354 --> 00:24:50,957
That's all we had
were depth charges.

488
00:24:50,957 --> 00:24:53,459
And I was in D-Day, June 1944.

489
00:24:54,727 --> 00:24:57,496
We were in an armada
of at least 1000 ships,

490
00:24:57,496 --> 00:25:00,199
and we were the smallest
U.S. commissioned vessel.

491
00:25:00,199 --> 00:25:01,701
USS Subchaser 1308.

492
00:25:03,469 --> 00:25:07,173
It's a 110 foot wooden ship
with 30 men and three officers.

493
00:25:07,173 --> 00:25:09,609
We were on the
anti-submarine screen.

494
00:25:09,609 --> 00:25:11,077
We didn't land.

495
00:25:11,077 --> 00:25:13,045
We could see all these
dough boys getting shot up

496
00:25:13,045 --> 00:25:14,246
on the beaches.

497
00:25:14,246 --> 00:25:17,449
But we were much safer
being in the Navy.

498
00:25:17,449 --> 00:25:19,719
We had a camera on board,
and a little camera lab,

499
00:25:19,719 --> 00:25:22,555
and we took a lot
of amateur pictures.

500
00:25:22,555 --> 00:25:24,356
We didn't have
time to take many.

501
00:25:24,356 --> 00:25:25,625
I was the skipper

502
00:25:25,625 --> 00:25:27,560
and Gene Fineblatt was
the Executive Officer

503
00:25:27,560 --> 00:25:32,198
and we were steaming in the
huge convoy all around us,

504
00:25:32,198 --> 00:25:34,500
a forest of masts arising

505
00:25:34,500 --> 00:25:36,468
from all the separate
ports in England

506
00:25:36,468 --> 00:25:38,204
where they had departed

507
00:25:38,204 --> 00:25:41,574
so we all came together
just as dawn was breaking

508
00:25:41,574 --> 00:25:44,844
when the whole fleet
headed for the beach,

509
00:25:44,844 --> 00:25:47,580
and started
debarking the troops.

510
00:25:56,488 --> 00:25:58,424
The sea is calm tonight

511
00:25:59,325 --> 00:26:00,526
off Dover Beach

512
00:26:01,493 --> 00:26:02,929
The birds at dusk

513
00:26:02,929 --> 00:26:04,130
cry out syllables

514
00:26:04,130 --> 00:26:06,298
of some deconstructed word

515
00:26:06,298 --> 00:26:08,668
we are yet unable to decipher

516
00:26:08,668 --> 00:26:10,336
to explain existence

517
00:26:11,704 --> 00:26:15,975
And they lift the last
light with their wings

518
00:26:15,975 --> 00:26:17,576
Keeping the secret.

519
00:26:22,448 --> 00:26:25,384
At the time of the
liberation in Paris,

520
00:26:25,384 --> 00:26:28,921
that fall, the fall of '44,
I got orders to go back

521
00:26:28,921 --> 00:26:32,258
to the states and then cross
the Pacific toward Japan

522
00:26:32,258 --> 00:26:35,227
and we were loaded
with 5000 troops.

523
00:26:35,227 --> 00:26:38,364
We were supposed to
be an invasion force.

524
00:26:38,364 --> 00:26:39,531
But, unknown to us...

525
00:26:51,711 --> 00:26:54,080
We took a train to
Nagasaki one day

526
00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:55,514
and it was totally open.

527
00:26:55,514 --> 00:26:59,318
There was no guards or
anything keeping people out.

528
00:27:00,419 --> 00:27:02,321
Of course this was
maybe six or seven weeks

529
00:27:02,321 --> 00:27:04,957
after the bomb was dropped.

530
00:27:04,957 --> 00:27:07,860
They'd cleaned up
the site somewhat.

531
00:27:07,860 --> 00:27:11,964
And I walked around in this,
like, a three square mile

532
00:27:11,964 --> 00:27:16,135
mulch of fused ruins, like
human flesh fused to a tea cup.

533
00:27:17,937 --> 00:27:22,208
And bones and hair
sticking out of this mulch.

534
00:27:22,208 --> 00:27:26,545
Every single building
flattened and pulverized.

535
00:27:26,545 --> 00:27:29,648
And you realize a
while city, it just

536
00:27:30,616 --> 00:27:31,617
disappeared.

537
00:27:32,819 --> 00:27:35,487
Made me an instant pacifist.

538
00:27:35,487 --> 00:27:37,223
No doubt about it.

539
00:27:37,223 --> 00:27:39,525
Up to that night, I was
totally politically naïve.

540
00:27:39,525 --> 00:27:43,963
I was a good American boy, Boy
Scout, never questioned it,

541
00:27:43,963 --> 00:27:45,131
being in the military service.

542
00:27:45,131 --> 00:27:47,233
Of course this is World War II,

543
00:27:47,233 --> 00:27:48,701
which is called the Good War.

544
00:27:48,701 --> 00:27:51,503
And, so there was
no discussion about

545
00:27:51,503 --> 00:27:52,905
whether we should be in the war

546
00:27:52,905 --> 00:27:55,341
or should we have
dropped the bomb.

547
00:27:55,341 --> 00:28:00,112
Years later, after I became
more politically literate,

548
00:28:00,112 --> 00:28:01,313
I came to the conclusion,

549
00:28:01,313 --> 00:28:02,681
we never would have
dropped the bomb

550
00:28:02,681 --> 00:28:06,152
if the Japanese
had had white skin.

551
00:28:06,152 --> 00:28:08,554
It was monstrous, racist act.

552
00:28:15,127 --> 00:28:19,231
After Nagasaki, we steamed
back to Portland, Oregon.

553
00:28:19,231 --> 00:28:21,400
And so, I was mustered out there

554
00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:23,970
and took at train
across to New York.

555
00:28:23,970 --> 00:28:27,373
I ended up working in the
mail room at Time Magazine.

556
00:28:27,373 --> 00:28:30,142
Cause I thought I could
work up to copy boy

557
00:28:30,142 --> 00:28:33,545
and so up become a great
writer for Time Magazine,

558
00:28:33,545 --> 00:28:34,981
Time Inc.

559
00:28:34,981 --> 00:28:38,150
We were a scurvy crew down
there, mostly disgruntled G.I.s

560
00:28:38,150 --> 00:28:40,419
and grunts from the
army and others intent

561
00:28:40,419 --> 00:28:42,254
on fucking up the system.

562
00:28:42,254 --> 00:28:44,023
After seven or eight
months, I get discouraged

563
00:28:44,023 --> 00:28:46,959
and went to Columbia
university on the G.I. bill

564
00:28:46,959 --> 00:28:48,928
and got an M.A. instead.

565
00:28:48,928 --> 00:28:51,530
I still had in mind
getting back to France.

566
00:28:51,530 --> 00:28:52,799
So, as soon as I got my M.A.,

567
00:28:52,799 --> 00:28:55,634
I took off for
Paris, immediately.

568
00:28:57,003 --> 00:28:58,737
So, I looked up George
Whitman when I got to Paris.

569
00:28:58,737 --> 00:29:01,540
He was living in a
real dump of a hotel

570
00:29:01,540 --> 00:29:03,642
on Boulevard Saint Michel,

571
00:29:03,642 --> 00:29:07,046
in a tiny room with books
stacked up on the wall

572
00:29:07,046 --> 00:29:09,048
on three sides and
George in the middle

573
00:29:09,048 --> 00:29:12,518
in a broken down easy
chair, cooking his dinner

574
00:29:12,518 --> 00:29:15,054
over a can of Sterno.

575
00:29:15,054 --> 00:29:17,056
That's how it all began.

576
00:29:18,390 --> 00:29:21,894
- This is the second
time that I have seen

577
00:29:23,162 --> 00:29:25,865
Lawrence and George together.

578
00:29:25,865 --> 00:29:28,167
And, both times have been
really moving because

579
00:29:28,167 --> 00:29:32,004
there's a very strong
sense of familiarity

580
00:29:32,004 --> 00:29:32,972
between the two of them

581
00:29:32,972 --> 00:29:34,907
which I hardly ever see with Dad

582
00:29:34,907 --> 00:29:38,710
because most of the people
around Dad are very young.

583
00:29:38,710 --> 00:29:40,546
I think that's one of
the secrets why he's

584
00:29:40,546 --> 00:29:43,015
stayed so young himself.

585
00:29:43,015 --> 00:29:45,985
But to see him with
an old, old friend,

586
00:29:45,985 --> 00:29:47,586
where there's this long history

587
00:29:47,586 --> 00:29:51,723
and this very intimate,
shared passion for literature

588
00:29:51,723 --> 00:29:53,325
that's been their life.

589
00:29:53,325 --> 00:29:55,494
- Well, we were both
at Sorbonne together

590
00:29:55,494 --> 00:29:57,196
at the same period I mean.

591
00:29:57,196 --> 00:30:00,967
I got a little diploma
in French civilization

592
00:30:00,967 --> 00:30:03,335
and he got very much
advanced degree,

593
00:30:03,335 --> 00:30:04,270
a doctorate

594
00:30:05,437 --> 00:30:08,374
and I heard him
defend his thesis

595
00:30:08,374 --> 00:30:09,876
at the Sorbonne

596
00:30:09,876 --> 00:30:14,646
on the image of the city and
the of poetry of T. S. Eliot.

597
00:30:14,646 --> 00:30:17,316
Which was an
unforgettable experience.

598
00:30:17,316 --> 00:30:19,385
- The thesis was on the subject of

599
00:30:19,385 --> 00:30:22,521
"La Cite, Symbole dans
la poesie moderne"

600
00:30:22,521 --> 00:30:24,891
I knew more about
American poetry I felt

601
00:30:24,891 --> 00:30:26,358
than the professors on stage,

602
00:30:26,358 --> 00:30:28,895
so I got away with murder
with what I said about

603
00:30:28,895 --> 00:30:30,829
various American poets.

604
00:30:32,364 --> 00:30:35,667
- Neither of us knew we
were gonna be booksellers.

605
00:30:35,667 --> 00:30:37,236
All of us thought we
were going to write

606
00:30:37,236 --> 00:30:40,772
the great American novel, of
course, like everyone else.

607
00:30:40,772 --> 00:30:44,610
But, I ended up opening
this bookstore in 1951

608
00:30:46,645 --> 00:30:48,180
in Paris.

609
00:30:48,180 --> 00:30:51,783
And he opened his bookstore
in 1953 in San Francisco.

610
00:30:51,783 --> 00:30:54,153
- The reason we have that
sign saying City Lights Books

611
00:30:54,153 --> 00:30:55,721
above Shakespeare and Company,

612
00:30:55,721 --> 00:30:57,389
and the reason Lawrence has
put Shakespeare and Company

613
00:30:57,389 --> 00:30:59,992
above the doorway of
City Lights is because

614
00:30:59,992 --> 00:31:03,229
there's the long history
of friendship between

615
00:31:03,229 --> 00:31:05,297
two bohemian booksellers

616
00:31:05,297 --> 00:31:07,233
that have made
literature their life.

617
00:31:07,233 --> 00:31:09,368
Lawrence told me that the
original idea was that

618
00:31:09,368 --> 00:31:11,603
George and Lawrence
would work one year

619
00:31:11,603 --> 00:31:15,441
in their own bookshop
and then swap for a year.

620
00:31:15,441 --> 00:31:19,611
But then they both got too
big and it wasn't possible.

621
00:31:33,392 --> 00:31:36,062
- And the Arabs ask
terrible questions.

622
00:31:36,062 --> 00:31:38,730
And the Pope didn't
know what to say.

623
00:31:38,730 --> 00:31:41,233
And the people ran around
in wooden shoes asking

624
00:31:41,233 --> 00:31:43,735
which way was the
head of Midas facing

625
00:31:43,735 --> 00:31:47,139
and everyone said
no instead of yes.

626
00:31:47,139 --> 00:31:48,740
While still forever

627
00:31:48,740 --> 00:31:50,676
in the Luxembourg gardens

628
00:31:50,676 --> 00:31:52,478
in the fountains of the Medici

629
00:31:52,478 --> 00:31:54,813
were there fat, red goldfish

630
00:31:54,813 --> 00:31:56,415
and the fat white goldfish

631
00:31:56,415 --> 00:31:58,884
and the children
running around the pool

632
00:31:58,884 --> 00:32:00,252
pointing and piping

633
00:32:00,252 --> 00:32:03,990
Les poisson rouge,
les poisson rouge.

634
00:32:03,990 --> 00:32:07,326
They ran off and a
leaf unhooked itself

635
00:32:07,326 --> 00:32:09,161
and fell upon the pool,

636
00:32:09,161 --> 00:32:12,631
and lay like an
eye winking circles

637
00:32:12,631 --> 00:32:15,934
and then the pool was very still

638
00:32:15,934 --> 00:32:18,870
and there was a dog
just standing there

639
00:32:18,870 --> 00:32:20,706
at the edge of the pool

640
00:32:20,706 --> 00:32:23,309
looking down at the tranced fish

641
00:32:23,309 --> 00:32:28,180
and not barking or waving
its funny tail or anything

642
00:32:28,180 --> 00:32:31,117
so that, for a moment then,

643
00:32:31,117 --> 00:32:33,452
in the late November dusk,

644
00:32:33,452 --> 00:32:35,221
silence hung

645
00:32:35,221 --> 00:32:36,555
like a lost idea

646
00:32:37,756 --> 00:32:40,159
and a statue turned its head.

647
00:32:57,043 --> 00:32:58,577
That's perfect.

648
00:32:58,577 --> 00:33:01,013
- Yeah, very nice.

649
00:33:02,181 --> 00:33:04,016
- I finally arrived in San Francisco

650
00:33:04,016 --> 00:33:05,284
in January 1951

651
00:33:06,385 --> 00:33:08,887
and my real political
education began

652
00:33:08,887 --> 00:33:11,090
when I met Kenneth Rexroth.

653
00:33:11,090 --> 00:33:13,559
He held Friday night
soirees at his house,

654
00:33:13,559 --> 00:33:16,562
250 Scott Street in the
old Filmore district

655
00:33:16,562 --> 00:33:20,166
and it was usually attended
by a dozen poets or so.

656
00:33:20,166 --> 00:33:24,336
He had program on KPFA where
he reviewed many fields,

657
00:33:24,336 --> 00:33:27,706
philosophy, geology,
astronomy, the classics.

658
00:33:27,706 --> 00:33:31,143
- Last week I talked
about the anarchist.

659
00:33:32,544 --> 00:33:35,947
You see, what is called
society in capital letters,

660
00:33:35,947 --> 00:33:40,119
usually feels that it has a
certain cultural responsibility.

661
00:33:42,221 --> 00:33:46,825
Now, this is one big factor
in the cultural night

662
00:33:46,825 --> 00:33:50,996
which is long since
shut down over official

663
00:33:50,996 --> 00:33:53,765
San Francsico,
well, that's that.

664
00:33:55,567 --> 00:33:57,169
- Rexroth considered himself

665
00:33:57,169 --> 00:33:58,870
a philosophical anarchist.

666
00:33:58,870 --> 00:34:01,073
And listening to
KPFA in the 1950's

667
00:34:01,073 --> 00:34:02,941
was a complete education.

668
00:34:02,941 --> 00:34:04,243
From the dissident
point of view,

669
00:34:04,243 --> 00:34:05,944
from the anarchist
point of view,

670
00:34:05,944 --> 00:34:07,313
and when the war ended,

671
00:34:07,313 --> 00:34:09,681
quite a few of the
conscientious objectors

672
00:34:09,681 --> 00:34:13,852
came to San Francisco on
account of Kenneth Rexroth.

673
00:34:17,489 --> 00:34:19,225
- Everybody talks about the
excitement of North Beach

674
00:34:19,225 --> 00:34:21,827
and it certainly was
incredibly exciting.

675
00:34:24,130 --> 00:34:25,497
Every writer and
artist in the world

676
00:34:25,497 --> 00:34:27,766
would come through somehow.

677
00:34:30,102 --> 00:34:31,337
Lenny Bruce would wander in.

678
00:34:31,337 --> 00:34:33,639
He'd just been arrested
three times that week.

679
00:34:33,639 --> 00:34:37,443
But, it was also wild and
dangerous and crazy at times

680
00:34:37,443 --> 00:34:39,345
and you get nuts coming
through and drunks

681
00:34:39,345 --> 00:34:40,779
and there would be
fights, and you know,

682
00:34:40,779 --> 00:34:42,414
it's the real world.

683
00:34:42,414 --> 00:34:45,050
In the middle of
this whole crazy zoo,

684
00:34:45,050 --> 00:34:48,454
Lawrence always exuded
a sense of calm,

685
00:34:48,454 --> 00:34:49,855
he was always relaxed.

686
00:34:49,855 --> 00:34:53,091
He always somehow
saw a larger picture.

687
00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:56,228
And I think he's had that
impact on a lot of people,

688
00:34:56,228 --> 00:34:58,630
and where it hit me,
is this guy coming in,

689
00:34:58,630 --> 00:35:00,699
he was looking for Lawrence.

690
00:35:00,699 --> 00:35:02,168
He didn't want to
leave town without

691
00:35:02,168 --> 00:35:03,202
seeing Lawrence Ferlinghetti

692
00:35:03,202 --> 00:35:04,403
to thank him.

693
00:35:04,403 --> 00:35:06,638
And he said that he was
at the Gate of Horn,

694
00:35:06,638 --> 00:35:08,640
it was a famous
place in Chicago.

695
00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:11,310
They had one of these
all night poetry things.

696
00:35:11,310 --> 00:35:14,246
Ferlinghetti was the headliner
and the reason people came.

697
00:35:14,246 --> 00:35:16,615
Dylan was one of the
last poets to read,

698
00:35:16,615 --> 00:35:17,683
and no one was paying attention,

699
00:35:17,683 --> 00:35:19,151
everybody was drunk by now.

700
00:35:19,151 --> 00:35:20,686
And the way he told
the story to me,

701
00:35:20,686 --> 00:35:23,189
is Lawrence Ferlinghetti
stood up and said,

702
00:35:23,189 --> 00:35:25,291
"You should be listening
to this guy's poetry.

703
00:35:25,291 --> 00:35:27,193
"He's the best poet
to read tonight."

704
00:35:27,193 --> 00:35:30,662
And the crowd quieted down
and they listened to him.

705
00:35:30,662 --> 00:35:33,832
He said it just gave him
the confidence to be a poet

706
00:35:33,832 --> 00:35:36,235
and that his words
mattered, and so forth.

707
00:35:36,235 --> 00:35:38,770
- Next we have A Baseball Canto

708
00:35:38,770 --> 00:35:40,839
by Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
a well known poet,

709
00:35:40,839 --> 00:35:43,041
who lived in San Francisco.

710
00:35:43,041 --> 00:35:45,444
He started the City
Lights Bookstore.

711
00:35:45,444 --> 00:35:48,280
He was a brave man
and brave poet.

712
00:35:49,715 --> 00:35:52,484
Watching baseball, sitting
in the sun, eating popcorn,

713
00:35:52,484 --> 00:35:55,721
reading Ezra Pound and
wishing that Juan Marichal

714
00:35:55,721 --> 00:35:58,357
would hit a hole right though
the Anglo-Saxon tradition

715
00:35:58,357 --> 00:35:59,991
in the first canto

716
00:35:59,991 --> 00:36:03,395
and demolish the
Barbarian invaders.

717
00:36:03,395 --> 00:36:06,765
Well, why don't I let Lawrence
tell you the rest of it?

718
00:36:06,765 --> 00:36:09,968
Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
Baseball Canto.

719
00:36:09,968 --> 00:36:12,003
- When the San Francisco
Giants take the field,

720
00:36:12,003 --> 00:36:14,606
and everybody stands up
for the national anthem

721
00:36:14,606 --> 00:36:16,908
with all the players
struck dead in their places

722
00:36:16,908 --> 00:36:19,578
and the white umpires
like Irish cops

723
00:36:19,578 --> 00:36:22,248
and facing east as if
expecting some great white hope

724
00:36:22,248 --> 00:36:25,684
or the founding fathers
to appear on the horizon

725
00:36:25,684 --> 00:36:28,053
but Willie Mays appears instead

726
00:36:28,053 --> 00:36:30,256
in the bottom of the
first and the roar goes up

727
00:36:30,256 --> 00:36:34,426
as he clouts the first one
into the sun and takes off

728
00:36:34,426 --> 00:36:36,262
and the ball is lost in the sun

729
00:36:36,262 --> 00:36:38,664
and maidens wail after him

730
00:36:38,664 --> 00:36:41,700
and he keeps running through
the Anglo-Saxon epic.

731
00:36:41,700 --> 00:36:45,070
And Tito Fuentes comes up
looking like a bull fighter

732
00:36:45,070 --> 00:36:48,774
in his tight pants and
small pointed shoes

733
00:36:48,774 --> 00:36:51,610
and the right field
bleachers go mad.

734
00:36:51,610 --> 00:36:54,880
Sweet Tito! Sock it
to him, Sweet Tito.

735
00:37:44,396 --> 00:37:47,766
- Hot day, and I was wearing
this very hot wool djellaba

736
00:37:47,766 --> 00:37:48,867
from Morocco.

737
00:37:50,436 --> 00:37:52,438
Someone at City Lights,
maybe it was me,

738
00:37:52,438 --> 00:37:55,507
reported a fire on the premises

739
00:37:55,507 --> 00:37:57,376
and in the middle
of this photo shoot,

740
00:37:57,376 --> 00:37:59,445
whenever all the poets were
gathered in front of the store,

741
00:37:59,445 --> 00:38:01,046
this big hook and ladder

742
00:38:01,046 --> 00:38:02,047
steams up in front
of the bookstore

743
00:38:02,047 --> 00:38:04,350
with the sirens screaming.

744
00:38:04,350 --> 00:38:05,851
I didn't realize you
could be put in jail

745
00:38:05,851 --> 00:38:08,253
for turning in a false alarm.

746
00:38:09,455 --> 00:38:12,491
Back then, what did we know?

747
00:38:34,245 --> 00:38:37,082
Poets come out of your closets.

748
00:38:37,082 --> 00:38:40,051
Open your windows,
open your doors.

749
00:38:40,051 --> 00:38:41,920
You have been holed up too long

750
00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:44,523
in your closed worlds.

751
00:38:44,523 --> 00:38:47,859
No time now for
the artist to hide.

752
00:38:47,859 --> 00:38:50,095
Above, beyond,
behind the scenes.

753
00:38:50,095 --> 00:38:52,163
Indifferent, paring
his fingernails,

754
00:38:52,163 --> 00:38:55,133
refining himself
out of existence.

755
00:38:55,133 --> 00:38:58,537
No time now for our
little literary games,

756
00:38:58,537 --> 00:39:02,608
no time no for our
paranoias and hypochondrias.

757
00:39:02,608 --> 00:39:05,110
No time now for
fear and loathing.

758
00:39:05,110 --> 00:39:07,846
Time now only for
light and love.

759
00:39:09,180 --> 00:39:13,018
Don't call me a beat! I
never was a beat poet.

760
00:39:14,753 --> 00:39:16,254
When I arrived in San Francisco,

761
00:39:16,254 --> 00:39:19,758
I was still wearing
my French beret, 1950,

762
00:39:20,926 --> 00:39:23,061
long before anyone had
heard of the beats,

763
00:39:23,061 --> 00:39:25,230
and it wasn't until
City Lights published

764
00:39:25,230 --> 00:39:28,099
Allen Ginsberg's
Howl in 1956, that

765
00:39:28,099 --> 00:39:29,601
the Beats arrived.

766
00:39:31,036 --> 00:39:32,571
- It's where all the guys
from New York came through,

767
00:39:32,571 --> 00:39:34,673
from Ginsberg to Kerouac,

768
00:39:34,673 --> 00:39:39,611
And with Berman came Rexroth,
David Meltzer, Ferlinghetti.

769
00:39:39,611 --> 00:39:42,448
They all came down,
they did poetry to jazz.

770
00:39:42,448 --> 00:39:46,217
And that influx started a
generation of artists here,

771
00:39:46,217 --> 00:39:47,719
visual artists.

772
00:39:47,719 --> 00:39:51,089
- News, the sort of
trickle-down news

773
00:39:51,089 --> 00:39:54,526
of what was going on in San
Francisco in the early 50's

774
00:39:54,526 --> 00:39:57,929
would be beginnings
of the beat movement.

775
00:39:57,929 --> 00:40:00,265
This stuff found
its way down south

776
00:40:00,265 --> 00:40:02,868
and did bring in an
enormous cultural wake.

777
00:40:02,868 --> 00:40:04,636
- There was this
communication back and forth

778
00:40:04,636 --> 00:40:07,473
between the poets and the
visual artists in Los Angeles

779
00:40:07,473 --> 00:40:09,875
who also thought of
themselves as poets.

780
00:40:09,875 --> 00:40:11,643
- Painters inspired poets,

781
00:40:11,643 --> 00:40:13,845
and the poets inspired painters.

782
00:40:13,845 --> 00:40:16,214
And that was a
beautiful exchange.

783
00:40:16,214 --> 00:40:19,417
- Ferlinghetti and that whole
group were like interlocked

784
00:40:19,417 --> 00:40:22,353
and inter-involved here, and I
don't think the art movement,

785
00:40:22,353 --> 00:40:24,456
the visual art movement
in Los Angeles,

786
00:40:24,456 --> 00:40:26,057
could have possibly
happened without

787
00:40:26,057 --> 00:40:28,059
the San Francisco poets.

788
00:40:32,030 --> 00:40:33,932
- The role of the artists,

789
00:40:33,932 --> 00:40:36,034
I mean there's all
kinds of roles,

790
00:40:36,034 --> 00:40:37,969
hot cross buns, there's

791
00:40:41,406 --> 00:40:42,974
croissants.

792
00:40:42,974 --> 00:40:45,176
Depends on whether you want
to be a real genteel artist

793
00:40:45,176 --> 00:40:48,013
or you want to be a
hot cross bun artist

794
00:40:48,013 --> 00:40:49,581
or you want to be a

795
00:40:51,016 --> 00:40:53,218
delicate croissant artist.

796
00:40:53,218 --> 00:40:54,886
There's all kinds
of art and artists.

797
00:40:54,886 --> 00:40:57,956
I mean, if you like
mustard on your roll,

798
00:40:57,956 --> 00:40:59,457
that's another kind.

799
00:40:59,457 --> 00:41:01,527
I mean, I think most artists,
if they're playing a role

800
00:41:01,527 --> 00:41:04,462
they should put
more mustard on it.

801
00:41:08,233 --> 00:41:11,703
If you can't cut the
mustard, then you know,

802
00:41:11,703 --> 00:41:14,506
you're not much of an artist.

803
00:41:14,506 --> 00:41:15,641
Put on my

804
00:41:15,641 --> 00:41:17,308
proper painting hat.

805
00:41:21,880 --> 00:41:23,515
I had this in my
head all these years.

806
00:41:23,515 --> 00:41:24,616
You see this?

807
00:41:25,751 --> 00:41:28,253
This is the first
line from Ezra Pound's

808
00:41:28,253 --> 00:41:29,621
First Canto.

809
00:41:29,621 --> 00:41:31,857
And then went down to the ship,

810
00:41:31,857 --> 00:41:35,694
Set keel to breakers,
forth on the godly seas,

811
00:41:36,862 --> 00:41:39,998
and we set up mast and
sail on that swart ship,

812
00:41:39,998 --> 00:41:43,835
Bore sheep aboard her,
and our bodies also

813
00:41:43,835 --> 00:41:48,039
Heavy with weeping, and
winds from sternward

814
00:41:48,039 --> 00:41:51,376
Bore us out onward
with bellying canvas.

815
00:41:53,178 --> 00:41:56,414
We're trying to represent
reality so-called,

816
00:41:56,414 --> 00:41:58,650
quote, unquote in painting.

817
00:41:58,650 --> 00:41:59,885
We're supposed to paint reality,

818
00:41:59,885 --> 00:42:02,721
but it's really just
another form of fiction.

819
00:42:02,721 --> 00:42:05,256
The painter himself
in various disguises,

820
00:42:05,256 --> 00:42:09,194
disguising himself in
various images on canvas,

821
00:42:09,194 --> 00:42:11,462
just like in writing poems.

822
00:42:12,798 --> 00:42:14,299
Nothing but masks.

823
00:42:15,767 --> 00:42:20,138
I asked 100 painters and 100
poets how to paint sunlight

824
00:42:20,138 --> 00:42:21,439
on the face of life.

825
00:42:21,439 --> 00:42:23,274
Their answers were ambiguous,

826
00:42:23,274 --> 00:42:26,544
whereas it seems to
me, all you have to do

827
00:42:26,544 --> 00:42:30,148
is conceive of the whole
world and all humanity

828
00:42:30,148 --> 00:42:32,183
as a kind of artwork.

829
00:42:32,183 --> 00:42:34,786
An art project of
the god of light,

830
00:42:34,786 --> 00:42:37,088
the whole earth and
all that's in it,

831
00:42:37,088 --> 00:42:39,157
to be painted with light.

832
00:42:42,260 --> 00:42:45,296
Did that butterfly
ask me a question?

833
00:42:45,296 --> 00:42:48,466
Only the Buddha can
ask me a question.

834
00:42:49,701 --> 00:42:52,403
I'm not a zen, and
I'm not a banana,

835
00:42:52,403 --> 00:42:53,504
and I'm not a

836
00:42:55,073 --> 00:42:56,742
bug. I'm not a bear.

837
00:42:58,176 --> 00:43:00,712
I'm not tree, I'm not a flower.

838
00:43:02,113 --> 00:43:06,184
I'm a two-legged creature,
lying on his back in the sun.

839
00:43:07,786 --> 00:43:10,288
In the temple of the zen fool.

840
00:43:13,992 --> 00:43:18,029
Jack Kerouac had to arrive
by taxi from San Francisco

841
00:43:18,029 --> 00:43:20,632
at four in the morning
with his brakeman's lantern

842
00:43:20,632 --> 00:43:22,868
and stumbled around in the
meadow trying to find the cabin

843
00:43:22,868 --> 00:43:26,537
and finally flaked out in
the meadow spread eagle

844
00:43:26,537 --> 00:43:28,573
where we found him
the next morning

845
00:43:28,573 --> 00:43:30,341
in a full state of meditation

846
00:43:30,341 --> 00:43:32,510
with tete de bois

847
00:43:32,510 --> 00:43:35,914
with a tongue of wood,
totally hung over.

848
00:43:38,083 --> 00:43:40,618
Essentially came down here
to recover from alcoholism.

849
00:43:40,618 --> 00:43:44,289
But he didn't have a
change to do that cause

850
00:43:45,556 --> 00:43:47,592
various beatniks kept showing up

851
00:43:47,592 --> 00:43:49,327
like Neal Cassady and

852
00:43:51,329 --> 00:43:53,264
Michael McClure and me.

853
00:43:55,967 --> 00:43:58,169
Kerouac and I were
sitting on the beach,

854
00:43:58,169 --> 00:44:00,238
and he out his little
spiral notebook

855
00:44:00,238 --> 00:44:01,639
that he always carried.

856
00:44:01,639 --> 00:44:03,141
He said, what did the sea say?

857
00:44:03,141 --> 00:44:07,545
And I said, "Le possion
du mer parlent le Breton."

858
00:44:07,545 --> 00:44:10,281
The fish of the
sea speak Breton.

859
00:44:11,616 --> 00:44:13,084
And said, "What was
that? What was that?"

860
00:44:13,084 --> 00:44:16,755
And I said, it's an
old Brittany proverb.

861
00:44:16,755 --> 00:44:18,556
The fish of the
sea speak Breton.

862
00:44:18,556 --> 00:44:20,358
And he wrote that
down in his notebook

863
00:44:20,358 --> 00:44:22,193
and that's on the
last page of the book.

864
00:44:22,193 --> 00:44:23,929
That's how the novel ends.

865
00:44:23,929 --> 00:44:26,364
The Canticle of Jack Kerouac.

866
00:44:28,533 --> 00:44:32,704
Far from the sea far from
the sea of Breton fishermen

867
00:44:33,839 --> 00:44:37,042
the white clouds
scudding over Lowell

868
00:44:37,042 --> 00:44:40,111
and the white birches
the bare white birches

869
00:44:40,111 --> 00:44:41,947
along the blear night roads

870
00:44:41,947 --> 00:44:43,782
flashing by in darkness

871
00:44:43,782 --> 00:44:45,450
where once he rode

872
00:44:45,450 --> 00:44:47,218
in Pop's old Plymouth

873
00:44:48,319 --> 00:44:49,955
And the birch-white face

874
00:44:49,955 --> 00:44:51,622
of a Merrimac madonna

875
00:44:51,622 --> 00:44:55,861
shadowed in streetlight by
Merrimac's shroudy waters

876
00:44:55,861 --> 00:44:58,696
a leaf blown upon sea wind

877
00:44:58,696 --> 00:45:00,231
out of Brittany

878
00:45:00,231 --> 00:45:01,833
over endless oceans.

879
00:45:14,279 --> 00:45:18,283
- And I feel all in all
that Jack simply was not

880
00:45:19,684 --> 00:45:22,353
a committed political
revolutionary.

881
00:45:22,353 --> 00:45:24,355
- No certainly not,
I mean...(obscured
by others talking)

882
00:45:24,355 --> 00:45:26,491
- ...thinking he was.

883
00:45:26,491 --> 00:45:28,927
And I'm not for that
matter, are you?

884
00:45:28,927 --> 00:45:31,797
- I certainly would
see this a a completely

885
00:45:31,797 --> 00:45:33,264
different type of
writing from my writing.

886
00:45:33,264 --> 00:45:35,033
- Are you, Lawrence?

887
00:45:35,033 --> 00:45:37,869
- I don't want to
sound pretentious.

888
00:45:37,869 --> 00:45:41,239
- That's not the question.
Just a simple yes or no.

889
00:45:41,239 --> 00:45:42,173
- Why, of course.

890
00:45:48,413 --> 00:45:50,348
I was tourist at revolutions.

891
00:45:50,348 --> 00:45:53,885
I was good at being where
things happened in the 1960's

892
00:45:53,885 --> 00:45:55,854
I was in Paris in '68.

893
00:45:55,854 --> 00:45:58,289
I was in Mexico City in '68

894
00:45:58,289 --> 00:46:00,391
when the students
were shot down.

895
00:46:00,391 --> 00:46:04,495
I was in Cuba in 1959,
the second anniversary

896
00:46:04,495 --> 00:46:07,065
of the Cuban Revolution.

897
00:46:07,065 --> 00:46:11,469
And, 50th anniversary of the
Russian Revolution, 1968.

898
00:46:11,469 --> 00:46:15,173
And in the 1970s,
I was a Sandinista.

899
00:46:15,173 --> 00:46:17,275
And I went down to Nicaragua

900
00:46:17,275 --> 00:46:20,745
to support the
Sandinista Revolution.

901
00:46:20,745 --> 00:46:23,714
And new Americans are coming.

902
00:46:23,714 --> 00:46:25,450
New North Americanos,

903
00:46:27,085 --> 00:46:30,255
the ones who are
not like Reagan,

904
00:46:30,255 --> 00:46:33,358
the ones who are
not like Abrams,

905
00:46:33,358 --> 00:46:35,726
the ones who are not like North,

906
00:46:35,726 --> 00:46:38,096
the ones who are not like Bush,

907
00:46:38,096 --> 00:46:41,232
the ones are who are not
like the short-haired hyenas

908
00:46:41,232 --> 00:46:42,968
of American business.

909
00:46:44,135 --> 00:46:47,038
There are more Ryan
Wilsons coming.

910
00:46:49,107 --> 00:46:52,510
There are millions
more like Ryan Wilson.

911
00:46:53,711 --> 00:46:57,082
If only they awaken,
if only they awaken.

912
00:46:59,550 --> 00:47:00,351
Nica, nica

913
00:47:01,887 --> 00:47:03,821
the flame trees,

914
00:47:03,821 --> 00:47:05,991
the framboyan are blooming

915
00:47:07,225 --> 00:47:09,694
and phoenixes rise up

916
00:47:09,694 --> 00:47:11,629
out of volcanoes.

917
00:47:23,174 --> 00:47:25,476
- Lawrence is basically,

918
00:47:25,476 --> 00:47:28,146
an anarchoid, civil libertarian.

919
00:47:30,415 --> 00:47:33,251
He's a man, let's
say of the left.

920
00:47:34,585 --> 00:47:37,155
He lived through the
existential period.

921
00:47:37,155 --> 00:47:39,357
That had big influence on
him, actually, big influence.

922
00:47:39,357 --> 00:47:43,494
- I was coming in the 40's,
and I'm still coming from

923
00:47:43,494 --> 00:47:46,797
a background of
French intellectual

924
00:47:46,797 --> 00:47:49,467
and going back to Albert Camus,

925
00:47:50,868 --> 00:47:53,571
you can not cooperate
with the state

926
00:47:53,571 --> 00:47:55,406
because if you
collaborate in any way

927
00:47:55,406 --> 00:47:57,842
you are guilty my complicity.

928
00:47:59,010 --> 00:48:03,281
And I find that 9/10 or 95%

929
00:48:03,281 --> 00:48:05,250
of the supposedly
dissident presses

930
00:48:05,250 --> 00:48:07,352
and writers in the United States

931
00:48:07,352 --> 00:48:08,786
in the last 20 years
have cooperated

932
00:48:08,786 --> 00:48:10,255
with the United
States government,

933
00:48:10,255 --> 00:48:13,959
by accepting grants from the
National Endowment of the Arts.

934
00:48:28,339 --> 00:48:32,177
I salute thee, national
pilot of our destinies

935
00:48:32,177 --> 00:48:33,578
in Air Force One.

936
00:48:34,845 --> 00:48:38,449
I salute thee, mass
murderer by complicity

937
00:48:38,449 --> 00:48:41,586
while there is a strung out
soul in Santa Rita prison,

938
00:48:41,586 --> 00:48:42,988
I am not free.

939
00:48:42,988 --> 00:48:46,891
While there is a napalmed
class, I am of it.

940
00:48:46,891 --> 00:48:49,927
I raise m y middle
finger to you,

941
00:48:49,927 --> 00:48:53,798
smiling supporter of
benevolent, imperial nationalism

942
00:48:53,798 --> 00:48:56,367
built upon political falses

943
00:48:56,367 --> 00:48:58,469
which still rule Washington

944
00:48:58,469 --> 00:49:00,638
and which you and
every other politician

945
00:49:00,638 --> 00:49:03,308
and president,
including Kennedy,

946
00:49:03,308 --> 00:49:06,144
were too political
not to inherit.

947
00:49:06,144 --> 00:49:08,879
Don't call me on
your red telephone

948
00:49:08,879 --> 00:49:12,050
war is good business,
invest your son.

949
00:49:18,023 --> 00:49:20,625
- Ferlinghetti was always
the central caution

950
00:49:20,625 --> 00:49:22,060
against government.

951
00:49:22,060 --> 00:49:24,695
Never trust government,
never trust power,

952
00:49:24,695 --> 00:49:26,164
question it.

953
00:49:26,164 --> 00:49:27,999
So when people on the lest
would be more inclined

954
00:49:27,999 --> 00:49:30,568
to sell out on some of the
stuff and look the other way

955
00:49:30,568 --> 00:49:31,936
when we shouldn't have,

956
00:49:31,936 --> 00:49:33,404
or what so-called
revolutionaries were doing,

957
00:49:33,404 --> 00:49:36,741
Ferlinghetti never
romanticized people in power,

958
00:49:36,741 --> 00:49:37,675
of anybody.

959
00:49:37,675 --> 00:49:40,345
He was always suspicious of it.

960
00:49:40,345 --> 00:49:44,182
- The state encroached
more and more worldwide

961
00:49:44,182 --> 00:49:46,917
on the freedom on
the individual,

962
00:49:46,917 --> 00:49:50,688
the position of the
poet as bearer of eros

963
00:49:50,688 --> 00:49:55,426
and as such an anarchist
against the state by definition

964
00:49:55,426 --> 00:49:57,495
into the middle
man in each of us,

965
00:49:57,495 --> 00:49:59,530
the subjective in each of us,

966
00:49:59,530 --> 00:50:02,700
which is so graphically
illustrated by

967
00:50:03,768 --> 00:50:06,904
Chaplin and his "little man."

968
00:50:06,904 --> 00:50:09,540
It's as if the state and
modern civilization in general

969
00:50:09,540 --> 00:50:13,611
were out to destroy the
subjective in each of us.

970
00:50:16,347 --> 00:50:19,617
Constantly risking
absurdity and death,

971
00:50:20,785 --> 00:50:24,522
the poet like an acrobat
balancing on eyebeams

972
00:50:25,956 --> 00:50:29,694
performing entrechats and
sleight-of-foot tricks.

973
00:50:29,694 --> 00:50:32,497
And other high theatrics

974
00:50:32,497 --> 00:50:36,667
and all without mistaking
anything for it may not be.

975
00:50:38,336 --> 00:50:41,339
Then he a little
Charlie Chaplin man

976
00:50:43,141 --> 00:50:46,244
spread eagle in the empty air

977
00:50:46,244 --> 00:50:47,345
of existence.

978
00:50:49,914 --> 00:50:52,283
- I think that one of the
things that's not understood

979
00:50:52,283 --> 00:50:53,818
about Lawrence,

980
00:50:53,818 --> 00:50:58,323
is Lawrence is probably the
most popular, modern poet

981
00:50:58,323 --> 00:50:59,924
in the entire world.

982
00:50:59,924 --> 00:51:03,494
The popular poets of today
would be Pablo Neruda,

983
00:51:03,494 --> 00:51:06,231
Allen Ginsberg,
Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

984
00:51:06,231 --> 00:51:08,433
And I strongly
suspect that Lawrence,

985
00:51:08,433 --> 00:51:09,534
in terms of book sells,

986
00:51:09,534 --> 00:51:11,136
is the most popular.

987
00:51:11,136 --> 00:51:13,571
And one of the most powerul
things that he's done,

988
00:51:13,571 --> 00:51:15,940
not for politics, but
for poetry itself,

989
00:51:15,940 --> 00:51:19,410
is that he turned on two
generations of young people

990
00:51:19,410 --> 00:51:20,911
to poetry

991
00:51:20,911 --> 00:51:23,614
and they went on from his
work to reading others.

992
00:51:23,614 --> 00:51:27,084
- He superseded E. E.
Cummings as a poet who

993
00:51:27,084 --> 00:51:31,422
probably inspired more young
people of the generation

994
00:51:31,422 --> 00:51:32,323
after 1955.

995
00:51:34,392 --> 00:51:36,694
He's done more than
okay in that sense.

996
00:51:36,694 --> 00:51:39,230
I mean, he's the
only poet, I think,

997
00:51:39,230 --> 00:51:41,266
in the United
States with a book,

998
00:51:41,266 --> 00:51:43,401
A Coney Island of
the Mind, I think

999
00:51:43,401 --> 00:51:45,836
there are a million
copies in print.

1000
00:51:45,836 --> 00:51:48,173
That's almost inconceivable.

1001
00:51:49,674 --> 00:51:51,209
- The title of my book, A
Coney Island of the Mind,

1002
00:51:51,209 --> 00:51:54,612
is taken from Henry Miller's
book, Into the Night Life.

1003
00:51:54,612 --> 00:51:56,214
And it's used out of context,

1004
00:51:56,214 --> 00:51:59,217
but expresses the way I
felt about these poems

1005
00:51:59,217 --> 00:52:00,718
when I wrote them.

1006
00:52:00,718 --> 00:52:02,887
As if they taken all
together, were a kind of

1007
00:52:02,887 --> 00:52:06,991
Coney Island of the mind,
a circus of the soul.

1008
00:52:06,991 --> 00:52:10,127
Coney Island was first
published in 1958.

1009
00:52:10,127 --> 00:52:13,798
The first edition was on cheap
newsprint, not many copies.

1010
00:52:13,798 --> 00:52:15,800
Now it's in the
hundreds printing.

1011
00:52:15,800 --> 00:52:17,034
In the process,

1012
00:52:17,034 --> 00:52:19,069
it was busted in various
parts of the country,

1013
00:52:19,069 --> 00:52:22,173
once by the American Legion
in Woodstock, New York,

1014
00:52:22,173 --> 00:52:25,009
and my publisher, James
Laughlin, had to come up there

1015
00:52:25,009 --> 00:52:27,645
and assure the American
Legion that I, indeed,

1016
00:52:27,645 --> 00:52:31,216
was not a member of
the Communist party.

1017
00:52:31,216 --> 00:52:34,151
The poem that probably upset
the American Legion and

1018
00:52:34,151 --> 00:52:37,154
the Catholic Church the most
was a poem on the crucifixion

1019
00:52:37,154 --> 00:52:41,091
which as based on a rap by
Lord Buckley called The Nazz.

1020
00:52:41,091 --> 00:52:45,563
This was a poem in what was
called hip lingo in those days.

1021
00:52:45,563 --> 00:52:47,998
Sometime during eternity

1022
00:52:47,998 --> 00:52:51,869
some guys show up and one of
them who shows up real late

1023
00:52:51,869 --> 00:52:53,971
is a kind of carpenter

1024
00:52:53,971 --> 00:52:57,375
from a square-type
place called Galilee

1025
00:52:57,375 --> 00:53:00,511
and he starts wailing and
claiming that he is hip

1026
00:53:00,511 --> 00:53:02,046
to who made heaven and earth

1027
00:53:02,046 --> 00:53:06,784
and that the cat who really
laid on us is his Dad.

1028
00:53:06,784 --> 00:53:11,322
You're hot, they tell him and
they stretch him on a tree

1029
00:53:11,322 --> 00:53:12,357
to cool

1030
00:53:12,357 --> 00:53:13,991
And everybody after that

1031
00:53:13,991 --> 00:53:17,262
is always making
models of this tree

1032
00:53:17,262 --> 00:53:19,096
with him hung up

1033
00:53:19,096 --> 00:53:20,865
and always crooning his name

1034
00:53:20,865 --> 00:53:25,102
and calling him to come down
and sit in on their combo

1035
00:53:25,102 --> 00:53:28,639
as if he is the king
cat who's got to blow

1036
00:53:28,639 --> 00:53:31,008
or they can't quite make it.

1037
00:53:31,008 --> 00:53:34,579
Only he don't come
down from his tree.

1038
00:53:34,579 --> 00:53:38,249
Him just hang there
looking real petered out

1039
00:53:39,317 --> 00:53:40,485
and real cool.

1040
00:53:45,222 --> 00:53:46,691
- Lawrence Ferlinghetti is a painter

1041
00:53:46,691 --> 00:53:48,826
as well as a poet and publisher.

1042
00:53:48,826 --> 00:53:52,029
And he holds a doctorate
from the Sorbonne.

1043
00:53:52,029 --> 00:53:54,265
His book, A Coney
Island off the Mind,

1044
00:53:54,265 --> 00:53:58,969
was first published 1958 and
is now in it's 14th printing

1045
00:53:58,969 --> 00:54:00,505
by New Directions.

1046
00:54:00,505 --> 00:54:03,674
It is one of the most widely
read books of poetry today.

1047
00:54:03,674 --> 00:54:07,745
One of the poems
concerns this very dog,

1048
00:54:07,745 --> 00:54:09,914
whose name is Homer.

1049
00:54:13,851 --> 00:54:17,322
- The dog trots
freely in the street

1050
00:54:17,322 --> 00:54:19,123
and sees reality

1051
00:54:19,123 --> 00:54:20,758
and the things he sees

1052
00:54:20,758 --> 00:54:22,527
are bigger than himself

1053
00:54:22,527 --> 00:54:24,028
and the things he sees

1054
00:54:24,028 --> 00:54:25,663
are his reality

1055
00:54:25,663 --> 00:54:27,131
Drunks in doorways

1056
00:54:27,131 --> 00:54:28,299
Fish on newsprint

1057
00:54:28,299 --> 00:54:29,434
Ants in holes

1058
00:54:29,434 --> 00:54:31,336
Chicken in Chinatown windows

1059
00:54:31,336 --> 00:54:33,471
their heads a block away

1060
00:54:33,471 --> 00:54:35,506
The dog trots
freely in the street

1061
00:54:35,506 --> 00:54:37,508
and the things he smells

1062
00:54:37,508 --> 00:54:39,477
smell something like himself

1063
00:54:39,477 --> 00:54:41,346
The dog trots
freely in the street

1064
00:54:41,346 --> 00:54:42,613
past puddles and babies

1065
00:54:42,613 --> 00:54:43,681
cats and cigars

1066
00:54:43,681 --> 00:54:45,616
poolrooms and policemen

1067
00:54:45,616 --> 00:54:46,951
He doesn't hate cops

1068
00:54:46,951 --> 00:54:48,319
He merely has no use for them

1069
00:54:48,319 --> 00:54:50,555
and he goes past them

1070
00:54:50,555 --> 00:54:52,723
and past the dead
cows hung up whole

1071
00:54:52,723 --> 00:54:55,393
in front of the San
Francisco Meat Market

1072
00:54:55,393 --> 00:54:56,894
He would rather eat a tender cow

1073
00:54:56,894 --> 00:54:58,596
than a tough policeman

1074
00:54:58,596 --> 00:55:00,264
though either might do

1075
00:55:00,264 --> 00:55:02,800
And he goes past the
Romeo Ravioli Factory

1076
00:55:02,800 --> 00:55:04,301
and past Coit's Tower

1077
00:55:04,301 --> 00:55:07,438
and past Congressman Doyle
of the Unamerican Commmittee

1078
00:55:07,438 --> 00:55:09,407
He's afraid of Coit's Tower

1079
00:55:09,407 --> 00:55:11,241
but he's not afraid
of Congressman Doyle

1080
00:55:11,241 --> 00:55:13,344
although what he hears
is very discouraging

1081
00:55:13,344 --> 00:55:14,345
very depressing

1082
00:55:14,345 --> 00:55:15,580
very absurd

1083
00:55:15,580 --> 00:55:17,782
to a sad young dog like himself

1084
00:55:17,782 --> 00:55:21,018
to a serious dog like himself

1085
00:55:21,018 --> 00:55:24,522
But he has his own
free world to live in

1086
00:55:24,522 --> 00:55:26,190
His own fleas to eat

1087
00:55:27,324 --> 00:55:28,993
He will not be muzzled

1088
00:55:28,993 --> 00:55:30,928
Congressman Doyle
is just another

1089
00:55:30,928 --> 00:55:33,097
fire hydrant to him

1090
00:55:33,097 --> 00:55:36,033
The dog trots freely
in the street.

1091
00:55:38,035 --> 00:55:39,169
that's a good dog.

1092
00:55:47,612 --> 00:55:51,449
- I went to a happening
with Lawrence in Paris.

1093
00:55:51,449 --> 00:55:53,951
It was arranged by
Jean-Jacques Lebel

1094
00:55:53,951 --> 00:55:56,286
who was a well-known
French beatik.

1095
00:55:56,286 --> 00:56:00,658
The happening included mice
being thrown at the audience.

1096
00:56:00,658 --> 00:56:03,027
Crabs being thrown
at the audience.

1097
00:56:03,027 --> 00:56:05,663
The door was locked so
people couldn't get out.

1098
00:56:05,663 --> 00:56:07,097
A band was playing.

1099
00:56:07,097 --> 00:56:10,735
A couple people were beating
on a VW, destroying it

1100
00:56:10,735 --> 00:56:12,403
with huge mallets.

1101
00:56:12,403 --> 00:56:16,340
And someone came out and
chopped off the heads

1102
00:56:16,340 --> 00:56:18,042
of some chickens

1103
00:56:18,042 --> 00:56:19,577
and it looked as if
they were dancing

1104
00:56:19,577 --> 00:56:23,748
to rock and toll music and
Lawrence was calmly reading

1105
00:56:24,649 --> 00:56:25,650
a long poem.

1106
00:56:28,986 --> 00:56:30,154
- Talk a little bit
about what happened

1107
00:56:30,154 --> 00:56:31,388
to the beat movement.

1108
00:56:31,388 --> 00:56:32,757
It sort of gave
way eventually to

1109
00:56:32,757 --> 00:56:33,958
the free speech movement,

1110
00:56:33,958 --> 00:56:35,560
which you were very much
a part of, Lawrence,

1111
00:56:35,560 --> 00:56:38,463
and then to hippies and
then to the New Left.

1112
00:56:38,463 --> 00:56:41,231
But, how did it sort of end.

1113
00:56:41,231 --> 00:56:44,234
- Well you can say all the
main shivements of the 1960s

1114
00:56:44,234 --> 00:56:47,171
counterculture were first
enunciated by the beats.

1115
00:56:47,171 --> 00:56:50,575
The early, the first
ecological consciousness

1116
00:56:50,575 --> 00:56:55,345
in writers such as Gary Snyder
and political points of view

1117
00:56:55,345 --> 00:56:58,148
all became mainstays of
the 60s counter culture.

1118
00:56:58,148 --> 00:56:59,950
- You think this is a liberated
society we live in today?

1119
00:56:59,950 --> 00:57:02,687
- You have like my
kids, they grew up,

1120
00:57:02,687 --> 00:57:04,589
they were already
liberated by the time they

1121
00:57:04,589 --> 00:57:05,590
have reached

1122
00:57:07,692 --> 00:57:09,193
20 years old.

1123
00:57:09,193 --> 00:57:12,830
Whereas in my generation,
it took us 20, 30 more years

1124
00:57:12,830 --> 00:57:14,298
to get to that point.

1125
00:57:14,298 --> 00:57:18,335
- The younger generation,
say 15, 24, high school kids,

1126
00:57:18,335 --> 00:57:21,539
realize that when
they get to be my age,

1127
00:57:21,539 --> 00:57:22,707
it'll be 2050.

1128
00:57:24,241 --> 00:57:26,811
What kind of world are they
going to have to live with?

1129
00:57:26,811 --> 00:57:29,880
Already the official
stereotype is quote

1130
00:57:29,880 --> 00:57:32,116
"diminished expectations"

1131
00:57:32,116 --> 00:57:34,318
which is a euphemism for
saying that the world is going

1132
00:57:34,318 --> 00:57:38,022
to be a horrible mess,
that the ozone layer holes

1133
00:57:38,022 --> 00:57:40,658
and the brimstone
in the atmosphere

1134
00:57:40,658 --> 00:57:42,660
is going to make
life unbearable,

1135
00:57:42,660 --> 00:57:44,361
that we're running out of water,

1136
00:57:44,361 --> 00:57:47,865
we're running out of arable
land, which is diminishing.

1137
00:57:47,865 --> 00:57:49,767
Species are being killed.

1138
00:57:49,767 --> 00:57:53,003
There's desertification and
deforestation everywhere.

1139
00:57:53,003 --> 00:57:56,373
And that hyper technology
has led us to an abyss

1140
00:57:56,373 --> 00:57:57,908
which may be like an Armageddon.

1141
00:57:57,908 --> 00:58:00,144
And everybody knows it
from old grandmothers

1142
00:58:00,144 --> 00:58:01,646
to young kids.

1143
00:58:01,646 --> 00:58:03,648
- The 60s stuff came out
of the beats more directly

1144
00:58:03,648 --> 00:58:05,415
than that of any
other influence.

1145
00:58:05,415 --> 00:58:06,817
City Lights Books
and Ferlinghetti

1146
00:58:06,817 --> 00:58:09,186
really were a very
important way station

1147
00:58:09,186 --> 00:58:11,055
between the beats
and the hippies

1148
00:58:11,055 --> 00:58:13,323
and the politics of the 60's,

1149
00:58:13,323 --> 00:58:14,859
I mean in a very critical way.

1150
00:58:19,196 --> 00:58:23,433
- In 1967, the counter culture,
which was very powerful,

1151
00:58:23,433 --> 00:58:25,670
in San Francisco
and in California,

1152
00:58:25,670 --> 00:58:28,405
and growingly more
powerful about the country,

1153
00:58:28,405 --> 00:58:32,409
decided to celebrate itself
by having a Human Be-In,

1154
00:58:32,409 --> 00:58:35,746
in the which the super normal
tribes would come together

1155
00:58:35,746 --> 00:58:39,149
and listen to
music, perform arts

1156
00:58:39,149 --> 00:58:43,554
and communicate their
lifestyle with one another.

1157
00:58:43,554 --> 00:58:45,122
There was a big stage.

1158
00:58:45,122 --> 00:58:48,058
Hot bands of the times
played, The Grateful Dead,

1159
00:58:48,058 --> 00:58:50,460
Quicksilver Messenger Service.

1160
00:58:50,460 --> 00:58:54,231
On the stage was
Lawrence Ferlinghetti

1161
00:58:54,231 --> 00:58:59,003
and Timothy Leary, Gary
Snyder and Allen Ginsberg

1162
00:58:59,003 --> 00:59:00,237
and myself.

1163
00:59:00,237 --> 00:59:02,973
I read a poem and then
I sang another poem

1164
00:59:02,973 --> 00:59:06,510
using the autoharp that Bob
Dylan had given me earlier.

1165
00:59:06,510 --> 00:59:09,146
And, the people
celebrated themselves.

1166
00:59:09,146 --> 00:59:11,982
- At the Human Be-In,
in Golden Gate Park,

1167
00:59:11,982 --> 00:59:15,586
I was up on stage next to Allen
Ginsberg and Timothy Leary

1168
00:59:15,586 --> 00:59:19,757
and we're facing out to
about 10,000 turned-on people

1169
00:59:20,858 --> 00:59:23,794
and a parachutist
descending from the sky

1170
00:59:23,794 --> 00:59:26,363
and Allen turns to me and says,

1171
00:59:27,297 --> 00:59:29,466
"What if we're all wrong?"

1172
00:59:37,708 --> 00:59:40,110
Revolution of consciousness
happened in the 60s

1173
00:59:40,110 --> 00:59:42,279
with expansion of consciousness

1174
00:59:42,279 --> 00:59:44,615
but the political
revolution never happened.

1175
00:59:44,615 --> 00:59:46,316
It was aborted,

1176
00:59:46,316 --> 00:59:49,019
like after Kent State,
that was the end of it.

1177
00:59:49,019 --> 00:59:51,188
The state clamped down

1178
00:59:51,188 --> 00:59:52,857
and Marcuse said
it all back then.

1179
00:59:52,857 --> 00:59:55,059
He talked about the
enormous capacity

1180
00:59:55,059 --> 00:59:57,594
of the dominant
culture to ingest

1181
00:59:57,594 --> 00:59:59,930
its most dissident elements.

1182
01:00:01,298 --> 01:00:05,469
The left really has no
organs of communication now.

1183
01:00:05,469 --> 01:00:08,639
In the 20s and 30s,
and even in the 40s,

1184
01:00:08,639 --> 01:00:12,442
the left was powered
by the labor movement.

1185
01:00:12,442 --> 01:00:14,812
And the workforce of the
United States was maybe

1186
01:00:14,812 --> 01:00:17,047
60 or 70 percent unionized.

1187
01:00:18,615 --> 01:00:21,719
The labor movement
became ingested by

1188
01:00:21,719 --> 01:00:23,754
the dominant culture

1189
01:00:23,754 --> 01:00:28,158
so that the labor movement
as a motor to the left

1190
01:00:28,158 --> 01:00:29,994
doesn't exist anymore.

1191
01:00:34,364 --> 01:00:36,934
I did a painting recently called

1192
01:00:36,934 --> 01:00:40,437
"Arles n'existe plus,"
my Van Gogh series.

1193
01:00:41,638 --> 01:00:45,409
In other words, "Arles
doesn't exist anymore."

1194
01:00:45,409 --> 01:00:48,178
Where's Gauguin or Van Gogh?

1195
01:00:48,178 --> 01:00:50,781
Where are they gonna go today?

1196
01:00:50,781 --> 01:00:54,952
If Gauguin goes to Tahiti, he'll
have to stay in the Hilton.

1197
01:00:56,120 --> 01:00:58,488
Those grass shacks
aren't there anymore.

1198
01:00:58,488 --> 01:01:00,124
We used to think, oh,
there's always an island

1199
01:01:00,124 --> 01:01:01,225
still further out,

1200
01:01:01,225 --> 01:01:03,894
where we can still get away.

1201
01:01:03,894 --> 01:01:08,065
But, the island further out
has a Club Med on it now

1202
01:01:08,065 --> 01:01:08,899
at Moreo.

1203
01:01:10,600 --> 01:01:13,637
So that's what this
painting was all about.

1204
01:01:13,637 --> 01:01:15,039
There isn't any away anymore

1205
01:01:15,039 --> 01:01:17,141
and the dominant mode
of force behind this

1206
01:01:17,141 --> 01:01:19,543
is the American mono-culture.

1207
01:01:22,046 --> 01:01:24,514
We've talked about ecology
and ecological crisis,

1208
01:01:24,514 --> 01:01:26,683
but the problem of problems

1209
01:01:26,683 --> 01:01:28,352
is the overpopulation.

1210
01:01:28,352 --> 01:01:29,920
And that's the...

1211
01:01:29,920 --> 01:01:31,488
You can't solve any
of the other problems

1212
01:01:31,488 --> 01:01:33,891
until overpopulation
is controlled.

1213
01:01:33,891 --> 01:01:37,527
I get solicitations from
places like Greenpeace

1214
01:01:37,527 --> 01:01:40,030
or any ecological organization

1215
01:01:40,030 --> 01:01:42,332
and what I write back now,

1216
01:01:42,332 --> 01:01:45,035
I write on the face
of the application:

1217
01:01:45,035 --> 01:01:48,739
You should redirect your efforts
to over population control.

1218
01:01:48,739 --> 01:01:51,141
Cause that's below
everything else,

1219
01:01:51,141 --> 01:01:53,077
nothing else is solvable
without solving that.

1220
01:01:53,077 --> 01:01:54,644
Why are the rain
forest being cut down?

1221
01:01:54,644 --> 01:01:56,246
Population, et cetera.

1222
01:01:56,246 --> 01:01:58,648
- What'll be the role off the
American right wing in that?

1223
01:01:58,648 --> 01:02:01,651
They'll be trying to
keep the United States

1224
01:02:01,651 --> 01:02:02,920
from participating in it,

1225
01:02:02,920 --> 01:02:05,689
some kind of population
education and reduction.

1226
01:02:05,689 --> 01:02:09,259
- Right on abortion and
on birth control and...

1227
01:02:09,259 --> 01:02:10,995
I mean, I think the Pope
is in the middle ages.

1228
01:02:10,995 --> 01:02:13,263
I was just in Rome and I
was interviewed on this,

1229
01:02:13,263 --> 01:02:14,198
about this,

1230
01:02:15,365 --> 01:02:16,901
I mean the Pope is

1231
01:02:16,901 --> 01:02:17,902
being really

1232
01:02:20,470 --> 01:02:22,072
ignorant and sinful.

1233
01:02:22,072 --> 01:02:25,810
This is a sinful position
he has on population control

1234
01:02:25,810 --> 01:02:29,579
And so, I've got
the Breeding Blues.

1235
01:02:35,585 --> 01:02:37,087
Sew, sew your seed

1236
01:02:38,889 --> 01:02:40,757
plant your seed

1237
01:02:40,757 --> 01:02:43,060
and who's to stop it?

1238
01:02:43,060 --> 01:02:45,495
Who's to say don't do it?

1239
01:02:45,495 --> 01:02:48,598
Who has the right to
say that it's a sin

1240
01:02:48,598 --> 01:02:51,368
that love is our
blight in the night?

1241
01:02:51,368 --> 01:02:53,437
It's a natural thing

1242
01:02:53,437 --> 01:02:55,739
the most natural thing

1243
01:02:55,739 --> 01:02:57,975
the most heavenly thing

1244
01:02:57,975 --> 01:03:00,544
the most blessed thing

1245
01:03:00,544 --> 01:03:02,012
so do it and sing.

1246
01:03:09,719 --> 01:03:12,689
- One of the most
important things, I think,

1247
01:03:12,689 --> 01:03:14,491
is the way he
distinguishes between

1248
01:03:14,491 --> 01:03:16,160
political and lyrical poetry.

1249
01:03:16,160 --> 01:03:18,662
Very important in
understanding his work.

1250
01:03:18,662 --> 01:03:21,698
And this came up when
we were in Bigsby Canyon

1251
01:03:21,698 --> 01:03:23,167
and suddenly he
jumped up and said,

1252
01:03:23,167 --> 01:03:26,136
"I'm going to tell you why I
hate writing political poetry."

1253
01:03:26,136 --> 01:03:28,538
I said, wow, one of the
most famous political poets

1254
01:03:28,538 --> 01:03:29,606
in the world is going to tell us

1255
01:03:29,606 --> 01:03:31,075
why he hates writing poetry.

1256
01:03:31,075 --> 01:03:32,709
This is a scoop.

1257
01:03:32,709 --> 01:03:35,245
He told us in no
uncertain terms.

1258
01:03:35,245 --> 01:03:37,781
He's a lyric poet,
which is different.

1259
01:03:37,781 --> 01:03:40,217
Political poetry he says

1260
01:03:40,217 --> 01:03:42,752
really concentrates on
things that are passing.

1261
01:03:42,752 --> 01:03:44,188
They come, they go.

1262
01:03:44,188 --> 01:03:46,523
And next year it's another
political situation.

1263
01:03:46,523 --> 01:03:49,626
But he and many lyric
poets try to find

1264
01:03:49,626 --> 01:03:53,197
the timeliness and
timelessness in subjects

1265
01:03:53,197 --> 01:03:55,866
that have a longer
lasting quality.

1266
01:03:55,866 --> 01:03:57,401
And these are the
subjects of his poetry,

1267
01:03:57,401 --> 01:04:01,071
but the fascinating thing, you
find in most of his poetry,

1268
01:04:01,071 --> 01:04:04,008
that there's crucial political
ideas embedded in them.

1269
01:04:04,008 --> 01:04:06,410
Sometimes they seem to
want not to be heard

1270
01:04:06,410 --> 01:04:08,378
and sometimes they're
right on the surface,

1271
01:04:08,378 --> 01:04:09,980
yelling out at you
to understand it.

1272
01:04:09,980 --> 01:04:12,516
They're an expressive
element that represent

1273
01:04:12,516 --> 01:04:16,386
some of the most crucial
political ideas that he has.

1274
01:04:16,386 --> 01:04:18,989
And that's what you
find in many poems

1275
01:04:18,989 --> 01:04:21,091
by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

1276
01:04:27,197 --> 01:04:28,698
- Now we bring you this,

1277
01:04:28,698 --> 01:04:31,168
courtesy of Wheaties and
the American Boy Magazine,

1278
01:04:31,168 --> 01:04:33,603
Dissidents, Big Sur.

1279
01:04:33,603 --> 01:04:34,838
January bright sun

1280
01:04:34,838 --> 01:04:38,075
tiny hummingbirds in the willows

1281
01:04:38,075 --> 01:04:40,344
suddenly flittering up

1282
01:04:40,344 --> 01:04:43,613
as an ordinary American
monster 4-door sedan

1283
01:04:43,613 --> 01:04:45,215
barrels up the canyon road

1284
01:04:45,215 --> 01:04:49,253
back-firing and
farting carbon monoxide

1285
01:04:49,253 --> 01:04:52,422
and the hummingbirds take
flight in a flurry of fear

1286
01:04:52,422 --> 01:04:55,292
a cloud of them all
at once humming away

1287
01:04:55,292 --> 01:04:56,826
into deep blue air

1288
01:04:56,826 --> 01:05:00,030
where the skies sucks
up their winged hum

1289
01:05:00,030 --> 01:05:02,799
and in the infinite
distance, eats them

1290
01:05:02,799 --> 01:05:06,370
as a crowd of huge,
defiant, upstart crows

1291
01:05:06,370 --> 01:05:09,873
sets up a ravening
raucous, Caw! Caw! Caw!

1292
01:05:11,341 --> 01:05:13,243
And screams and circles overhead

1293
01:05:13,243 --> 01:05:15,980
and pickets the polluted air

1294
01:05:15,980 --> 01:05:19,683
as the metalled monster
power-drives on up the canyon

1295
01:05:19,683 --> 01:05:21,351
and over the horizon

1296
01:05:21,351 --> 01:05:24,688
and the crows now
too, wing away on wind

1297
01:05:25,722 --> 01:05:28,492
and are sucked up and disappear

1298
01:05:28,492 --> 01:05:31,061
into the omnivorous universe,

1299
01:05:31,061 --> 01:05:33,363
even as any civilization

1300
01:05:33,363 --> 01:05:37,367
ingests its own most
dissident elements.

1301
01:05:43,407 --> 01:05:46,610
It's right on the
tip of the peninsula.

1302
01:05:46,610 --> 01:05:49,546
That's where Lorenzo
grew up mostly

1303
01:05:49,546 --> 01:05:50,714
and Julie too.

1304
01:05:53,417 --> 01:05:55,952
Smile you're on camera.

1305
01:05:55,952 --> 01:05:58,922
Happy 45th Lorenzo birthday.

1306
01:05:58,922 --> 01:06:00,224
- Okay, I gotta make a wish.

1307
01:06:00,224 --> 01:06:02,959
It's gotta be a secret, though.

1308
01:06:02,959 --> 01:06:04,928
I can tell you one of them.

1309
01:06:04,928 --> 01:06:07,631
To live a long and healthy
life with my family.

1310
01:06:07,631 --> 01:06:09,366
Okay, 45 years young.

1311
01:06:18,275 --> 01:06:19,809
- Where was this one?

1312
01:06:19,809 --> 01:06:22,112
- That was out
at the coast of Australia.

1313
01:06:22,112 --> 01:06:23,113
- Oh, yeah.

1314
01:06:23,113 --> 01:06:24,881
- Here's another.

1315
01:06:24,881 --> 01:06:26,283
- I didn't know you had these.

1316
01:06:26,283 --> 01:06:28,418
- Kept them.
Mom kept them. Yeah.

1317
01:06:28,418 --> 01:06:29,919
Here's one in Big Sur.

1318
01:06:29,919 --> 01:06:31,555
This is a classic one.

1319
01:06:31,555 --> 01:06:34,424
I was watching Dad first
thing in the morning,

1320
01:06:34,424 --> 01:06:37,094
as soon as the sun made it
over the top of the bluff,

1321
01:06:37,094 --> 01:06:39,929
he would stand there
chanting the sun mantra.

1322
01:06:39,929 --> 01:06:41,098
Sun, sun, sun.

1323
01:06:44,000 --> 01:06:46,570
And that's where he
thought of the symbol.

1324
01:06:46,570 --> 01:06:49,206
The early days on Potrero Hill

1325
01:06:49,206 --> 01:06:53,009
probably 1963, sitting
on the front steps

1326
01:06:53,009 --> 01:06:57,181
of 706 Wisconsin Street with
Dad and Julie, my sister.

1327
01:06:58,548 --> 01:07:01,251
Called the ghost house of
Potrero Hill when Dad bought it

1328
01:07:01,251 --> 01:07:05,489
and it was completely
dilapidated, no foundation,

1329
01:07:05,489 --> 01:07:08,792
holes in the roof, front
steps were falling down.

1330
01:07:08,792 --> 01:07:11,095
Had some great
memories in that house.

1331
01:07:11,095 --> 01:07:13,497
My room was the upstairs.

1332
01:07:13,497 --> 01:07:16,166
I had the best view of the city.

1333
01:07:16,166 --> 01:07:18,468
And you could see, as a
child, I remember watching

1334
01:07:18,468 --> 01:07:21,405
a whole skyline of
San Francisco go up.

1335
01:07:24,074 --> 01:07:26,476
- I wanted to mention a
little about this Price Row

1336
01:07:26,476 --> 01:07:29,313
that is losing
it's name for mine.

1337
01:07:30,980 --> 01:07:35,719
I find out by talking to
the boys at Trigoni Hardware

1338
01:07:35,719 --> 01:07:38,322
who grew up here, during
prohibition, Price Row

1339
01:07:38,322 --> 01:07:41,191
was where the bootleggers
trucks backed up.

1340
01:07:45,295 --> 01:07:49,065
And also, it was the back
door of an undertaker's.

1341
01:07:50,634 --> 01:07:54,604
So, we had bootleggers
trucks and hearses.

1342
01:07:54,604 --> 01:07:57,006
It's a fitting place
for poets to hang out.

1343
01:08:00,644 --> 01:08:04,114
I was 30 before I saw San
Francisco for the first time.

1344
01:08:04,114 --> 01:08:07,751
And I've spent most
of the last 40 years

1345
01:08:07,751 --> 01:08:09,486
walking up and down the streets,

1346
01:08:09,486 --> 01:08:12,222
of little old
wooden North Beach.

1347
01:08:13,823 --> 01:08:15,859
I know the streets
and alleys around here

1348
01:08:15,859 --> 01:08:19,396
like the palm of my
hand, to coin a cliche.

1349
01:08:19,396 --> 01:08:22,866
And it's truly unbelievable
to have a tiny line

1350
01:08:22,866 --> 01:08:25,202
in that palm named after me.

1351
01:08:35,412 --> 01:08:36,980
Grazi!

1352
01:08:53,263 --> 01:08:55,098
- Allen Ginsberg Dying

1353
01:09:04,841 --> 01:09:06,743
Allen Ginsberg is dying

1354
01:09:08,144 --> 01:09:10,046
It's in all the papers.

1355
01:09:11,080 --> 01:09:13,750
It's on the evening news.

1356
01:09:13,750 --> 01:09:15,585
A great poet is dying,

1357
01:09:16,886 --> 01:09:18,888
but his voice won't die.

1358
01:09:33,102 --> 01:09:35,205
His voice is on the land.

1359
01:09:38,475 --> 01:09:40,744
In lower Manhattan

1360
01:09:40,744 --> 01:09:41,911
in his own bed

1361
01:09:44,314 --> 01:09:45,315
he is dying.

1362
01:09:47,584 --> 01:09:48,585
He is dying.

1363
01:09:49,653 --> 01:09:51,321
There is nothing to do about it.

1364
01:09:51,321 --> 01:09:54,891
He is dying the death
that everyone dies.

1365
01:09:54,891 --> 01:09:57,727
He is dying the
death of the poet.

1366
01:10:05,935 --> 01:10:09,205
A recent New Directions
book of mine is called

1367
01:10:09,205 --> 01:10:11,708
Poetry as Insurgent Art.

1368
01:10:11,708 --> 01:10:14,778
And it more or less sums up
what I've always considered

1369
01:10:14,778 --> 01:10:16,280
the role of the poet.

1370
01:10:16,280 --> 01:10:19,383
Poetry should be
dissident and subversive

1371
01:10:19,383 --> 01:10:21,618
and an agent for change.

1372
01:10:21,618 --> 01:10:25,489
It begins, I am signaling
you through the flames.

1373
01:10:25,489 --> 01:10:27,491
The north pole is not
where it used to be.

1374
01:10:27,491 --> 01:10:30,727
Manifest destiny is
no longer manifest.

1375
01:10:30,727 --> 01:10:33,397
What are poets for
in such an age?

1376
01:10:33,397 --> 01:10:35,732
What is the use of poetry?

1377
01:10:35,732 --> 01:10:38,101
Create works capable of
answering the challenge

1378
01:10:38,101 --> 01:10:39,969
of Apocalyptic times

1379
01:10:39,969 --> 01:10:44,073
even if this means
sounding Apocalyptic.

1380
01:10:44,073 --> 01:10:46,810
And the great spaces that
open out upon the sea

1381
01:10:46,810 --> 01:10:49,546
high tide and the herons call

1382
01:10:49,546 --> 01:10:52,048
and the people, the people, yes

1383
01:10:52,048 --> 01:10:55,419
all around the Earth,
speaking babel tongues.

1384
01:10:55,419 --> 01:10:59,956
You must decide if bird
cries are cries of ecstasy

1385
01:10:59,956 --> 01:11:02,225
or cries of despair.

1386
01:11:02,225 --> 01:11:04,428
Question everything
and everyone,

1387
01:11:04,428 --> 01:11:07,030
including Socrates who
questioned everything.

1388
01:11:07,030 --> 01:11:08,965
Strive to change the
world in such a way

1389
01:11:08,965 --> 01:11:12,869
that there's no further
need to be a dissident.

1390
01:11:12,869 --> 01:11:16,172
The idea of poetry as
an arm of class war

1391
01:11:16,172 --> 01:11:20,344
disturbs the sleep of those
who do not wish to be disturbed

1392
01:11:20,344 --> 01:11:22,779
in their pursuit of happiness.

1393
01:11:22,779 --> 01:11:26,983
The natural born, non-violent
enemy of the state.

1394
01:11:26,983 --> 01:11:29,185
It is the ultimate resistance.

1395
01:11:29,185 --> 01:11:32,856
It is the voice within
the voice of eternal.

1396
01:11:34,057 --> 01:11:37,727
It is the face behind
the face of the race.

1397
01:11:37,727 --> 01:11:41,598
It is the voice of the
fourth person singular.

1398
01:11:41,598 --> 01:11:45,402
Poetry, the last
lighthouse in rising seas.

1399
01:11:53,076 --> 01:11:55,679
- He once said all I
want to do is write light

1400
01:11:55,679 --> 01:11:57,414
on the walls of life.

1401
01:11:58,982 --> 01:12:01,985
I think this applies to
all the media he works in.

1402
01:12:01,985 --> 01:12:04,688
He's such a great observer.

1403
01:12:04,688 --> 01:12:05,489
Of people,

1404
01:12:06,823 --> 01:12:07,657
of events.

1405
01:12:09,526 --> 01:12:11,628
Probably what he would
call little episodes

1406
01:12:11,628 --> 01:12:14,464
in the tragic
comedy of existence.

1407
01:12:15,799 --> 01:12:18,968
I guess I would call
him a romantic idealist

1408
01:12:18,968 --> 01:12:22,238
who accepts living
in an imperfect world

1409
01:12:22,238 --> 01:12:24,908
with humor and good grace.

1410
01:12:24,908 --> 01:12:26,075
- All these years,

1411
01:12:26,075 --> 01:12:27,977
while I've been pursuing
the art of writing

1412
01:12:27,977 --> 01:12:30,213
and the art of painting,

1413
01:12:30,213 --> 01:12:34,317
I've had this day job at
City Lights Bookstore.

1414
01:12:34,317 --> 01:12:37,587
And so, here we are, well
into the 21st Century.

1415
01:12:37,587 --> 01:12:41,458
In the upper windows of
City Lights right now

1416
01:12:41,458 --> 01:12:44,428
is my personal blog
in handwritten signs

1417
01:12:44,428 --> 01:12:45,929
such as turn left,

1418
01:12:47,263 --> 01:12:50,066
indict and jail Bush and Cheney

1419
01:12:50,066 --> 01:12:52,402
for crimes against humanity,

1420
01:12:52,402 --> 01:12:56,272
total gun control now,
abolish the death penalty,

1421
01:12:56,272 --> 01:13:00,810
universal single-payer
health plan for everyone,

1422
01:13:00,810 --> 01:13:04,113
rewrite the law on corporations,

1423
01:13:04,113 --> 01:13:07,784
the Middle East, Obama's
Vietnam, et cetera.

1424
01:13:09,453 --> 01:13:11,688
But what is really
needed these days,

1425
01:13:11,688 --> 01:13:14,891
is a national debate on
socialism and whether

1426
01:13:14,891 --> 01:13:16,560
America should adopt

1427
01:13:17,694 --> 01:13:20,964
some form of civil
libertarian socialism

1428
01:13:20,964 --> 01:13:22,466
instead of capitalism.

1429
01:13:22,466 --> 01:13:24,968
This is a historic
moment to do it.

1430
01:13:24,968 --> 01:13:28,805
However, the press has
made socialism a dirty word

1431
01:13:28,805 --> 01:13:31,608
and not a single
politician will utter it,

1432
01:13:31,608 --> 01:13:33,176
much less Obama.

1433
01:13:33,176 --> 01:13:35,244
And that's where we are today.

1434
01:13:35,244 --> 01:13:38,081
Still waiting for
Obama's nirvana.

1435
01:13:42,619 --> 01:13:45,822
Yes, the world is
the best place of all

1436
01:13:45,822 --> 01:13:50,093
for a lot of such things
as making the fun scene

1437
01:13:50,093 --> 01:13:52,161
and making the love scene

1438
01:13:52,161 --> 01:13:54,864
and making the sad scene
and singing love songs

1439
01:13:54,864 --> 01:13:56,766
and having inspirations

1440
01:13:56,766 --> 01:13:58,502
and walking around
looking at everything

1441
01:13:58,502 --> 01:14:01,404
and smelling flowers
and goosing statues

1442
01:14:01,404 --> 01:14:02,906
and even thinking,

1443
01:14:04,107 --> 01:14:05,609
and kissing people
and making babies

1444
01:14:05,609 --> 01:14:09,345
and wearing pants and
waving hats and dancing

1445
01:14:09,345 --> 01:14:11,247
and going swimming
in rivers on picnics

1446
01:14:11,247 --> 01:14:12,849
in the middle of the summer

1447
01:14:12,849 --> 01:14:15,519
and just generally living it up.

1448
01:14:16,720 --> 01:14:20,557
Yes, but then, right
in the middle of it,

1449
01:14:20,557 --> 01:14:22,959
comes a smiling mortician.

1450
01:14:57,627 --> 01:15:00,664
- C'est mon grand
plaisir de célébrer

1451
01:15:02,832 --> 01:15:04,467
ma liaison

1452
01:15:04,467 --> 01:15:05,635
avec le France

1453
01:15:07,170 --> 01:15:09,773
et la culture française.

1454
01:15:13,677 --> 01:15:15,579
Well, I've been getting
a lot of awards lately

1455
01:15:15,579 --> 01:15:19,849
which would make you think
I've been ingested by

1456
01:15:19,849 --> 01:15:22,986
the dominant, industrial,
commercial society

1457
01:15:22,986 --> 01:15:24,487
but I haven't.

1458
01:15:24,487 --> 01:15:26,322
I may have been swallowed
but I haven't been ingested.

1459
01:15:29,392 --> 01:15:31,961
And I'm indigestible.

1460
01:15:33,429 --> 01:15:37,400
- His particular brand
off highly recent,

1461
01:15:37,400 --> 01:15:40,670
highly intelligent, but highly
witty political activism

1462
01:15:40,670 --> 01:15:43,940
he has carried that in
his life and in his poetry

1463
01:15:43,940 --> 01:15:48,111
effectively and lightly
through his whole life career

1464
01:15:48,111 --> 01:15:49,713
right up til now.

1465
01:15:49,713 --> 01:15:51,547
- Ferlinghetti and City
Lights is sort of the

1466
01:15:51,547 --> 01:15:53,416
guiding light of this city

1467
01:15:53,416 --> 01:15:56,219
and created the literary
atmosphere that everbody's

1468
01:15:56,219 --> 01:15:57,754
attracted to.

1469
01:15:57,754 --> 01:16:00,323
This is the best literary
environment in the world.

1470
01:16:00,323 --> 01:16:02,025
It's the most supportive.

1471
01:16:02,025 --> 01:16:03,660
It's the most engaged.

1472
01:16:03,660 --> 01:16:06,162
It's the best example
of writers being

1473
01:16:06,162 --> 01:16:07,631
involved in their community

1474
01:16:07,631 --> 01:16:09,065
and not necessarily
drawing a line

1475
01:16:09,065 --> 01:16:10,433
between art and politics

1476
01:16:10,433 --> 01:16:11,668
and thinking that, you know,

1477
01:16:11,668 --> 01:16:13,569
artists have a voice
and have a place.

1478
01:16:13,569 --> 01:16:17,006
This is all because
of City Lights.

1479
01:16:17,006 --> 01:16:19,609
- Ferlinghetti not only
has continued to write,

1480
01:16:19,609 --> 01:16:22,511
and there's this very
steady outpouring of verse,

1481
01:16:22,511 --> 01:16:25,749
but he has retained
his political edge

1482
01:16:25,749 --> 01:16:29,853
and it's gotten sharper
by being honed by

1483
01:16:29,853 --> 01:16:32,956
not just time, but
American politics.

1484
01:16:32,956 --> 01:16:35,859
It's admirable, I think,
that Ferlinghetti is still

1485
01:16:35,859 --> 01:16:37,894
speaking out and using poetry

1486
01:16:37,894 --> 01:16:40,730
as the ultimate
freedom of speech.

1487
01:16:42,131 --> 01:16:44,734
- [Lawrence] So now is
the time for you to speak

1488
01:16:44,734 --> 01:16:48,504
before they come for
you, oh silent majority.