Lawrence Ferlinghetti 100

26 Mar 19 - 11:59 PM (#3984713)
Subject: Lawrence Ferlinghetti 100
From: Big Al Whittle

I didn’t get much sleep last night
thinking about underwear
Have you ever stopped to consider
underwear in the abstract
When you really dig into it
some shocking problems are raised
Underwear is something we all have to deal with
Everyone wears
some kind of underwear
Even Indians wear underwear
Even Cubans
wear underwear
The Pope wears underwear I hope
The Governor of Louisiana wears underwear
I saw him on TV
He must have had tight underwear
He squirmed a lot
Underwear can really get you in a bind
You have seen the underwear ads for men and women
so alike but so different
Women’s underwear holds things up
Men’s underwear holds things down
Underwear is one thing
men and women do have in common
Underwear is all we have between us
You have seen the three-color pictures
with crotches encircled
to show the areas of extra strength
with three-way stretch
promising full freedom of action
Don’t be deceived
It’s all based on the two-party system
which doesn’t allow much freedom of choice
the way things are set up
America in its Underwear
struggles thru the night
Underwear controls everything in the end
Take foundation garments for instance
They are really fascist forms
of underground government
making people believe
something but the truth
telling you what you can of can’t do
Did you ever try to get around a girdle
Perhaps Non-Violent Action
is the only answer
Did Gandhi wear a girdle?
Did Lady Macbeth wear a girdle?
Was that why Macbeth murdered sleep?

And the spot she was always rubbing -
Was it really her underwear?
Modern anglosaxon ladies
must have huge guilt complexes
always washing and washing and washing
Out damned spot
Underwear with spots very suspicious
Underwear with bulges very shocking
Underwear on clothesline a great flag of freedom
Someone has escaped his Underwear
May be naked somewhere
Help!
But don’t worry
Everybody’s still hung up in it
There won’t be no real revolution
And poetry still the underwear of the soul
And underwear still covering
a multitude of faults

in the geological sense -
strange sedimentary stones, inscrutable cracks!
If I were you I’d keep aside
an oversize pair of winter underwear
Do not go naked into that good night
And in the meantime
keep calm and warm and dry
No use stirring ourselves up prematurely
‘over Nothing’
Move forward with dignity
hand in vest
Don’t get emotional
And death shall have no dominion
There’s plenty of time my darling
Are we not still young and easy?
Don’t shout.

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27 Mar 19 - 12:33 AM (#3984714)
Subject: RE: Lawrence Ferlinghetti 100
From: Stilly River Sage

Celebrating 100 years of Lawrence Ferlinghetti

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27 Mar 19 - 01:11 AM (#3984716)
Subject: RE: Lawrence Ferlinghetti 100
From: GUEST,paperback

City Lights -- paperbacks only
It's the Paperback Revolution!

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27 Mar 19 - 05:11 AM (#3984737)
Subject: RE: Lawrence Ferlinghetti 100
From: GUEST,Portista!

@BAW,
Thank you for posting Ferlinghetti’s Underwear for all to see! It has been years since I’ve read it, but it, and he continue to amuse and delight.

Happy Centenary, Lawrence Ferlinghetti!

“Semper Ubi Sub Ubi!”

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28 Mar 19 - 06:22 PM (#3984955)
Subject: RE: Lawrence Ferlinghetti 100
From: GUEST,keberoxu

NPR interviews Ferlinghetti

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28 Mar 19 - 08:39 PM (#3984962)
Subject: RE: Lawrence Ferlinghetti 100
From: Bee-dubya-ell

I was introduced to Ferlinghetti in a high school Humanities class in 1969. We read and discussed his poetry for several days. This was at a southern US public school where dress and hair length codes were strictly enforced and where the principal was a narrow-minded former football coach with a bad attitude toward anything "hippyish".

That teacher was a very brave man.

Later on, in college, I wrote a research paper on Ferlinghetti. I only received a "B-" on it. The professor's comment was "Well written, but you should have picked a real poet instead of such a lightweight pretender."

That professor was a shit-head.

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28 Mar 19 - 11:10 PM (#3984967)
Subject: RE: Lawrence Ferlinghetti 100
From: Big Al Whittle

worlds full of 'em....

they screw up people's lives. They screw up society by standing in the way people who look for positives and creativity.

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