Wisdom of the Beat

While composing a previous posting, I was reminded of the "beat" poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who was popular in the '50s and early '60s. The beats, or beatniks, were precursors of the hippies of the late '60s and early '70s. Hedonistic and anti-establishment like the hippies, but with an intellectual flair. Ferlinghetti first came to my attention when a friend quoted the last line of one of his poems:

silence hung like a lost idea
                                        and a statue turned
                                   its head

Wow! And that's just one of many visually evocative lines in Ferlinghetti's poetry. I was never sure of his message, but I was always awed by the images his poems conjured up in my mind's eye.

I was reminded of Ferlinghetti when writing about the shortsightedness of Republicans with regard to national health care. One of his anti-war poems opined satirically that life is not so bad if we don't mind "bombs in our upturned faces" and "small minds in high places."

Ferlinghetti was writing during the post WW-II cold war era when everyone was legitimately and fearfully concerned about being nuked by the Russians. The movie "Dr. Strangelove" provides a humorous and satirical, but nonetheless chilling look at this era. As is evident, Ferlinghetti took a cynical view of politics and government, which is as appropriate today as it was in the '50s and '60s.

Ready for Ferlinghetti's poetry? Check out A Coney Island of the Mind and/or Pictures of the Gone World. Be prepared for a mind warp that may open up an alternative vision of reality.

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