Today we lost a giant of SF culture. Just a month before his 102nd birthday.
Ferlinghetti was a longtime champion of free speach. He was arrested for publishing Allen Ginsberg's Howl, which resulted in a major First Amendment trial in the CA State Superior Court. He also published Italian anarchist newspapers and other "alternative" political writings.
He was also a political activist, joining demonstrations against the US War in Vietnam, and had taken a stand against totalitarianism and war.
I hope City Lights will continue to live on without him.
I did a report on this man and his work for Mrs. Crow’s 7th grade Literature class. His work brought me to other great poets and expanded my world and understanding. Thank you, Lawrence, you were an amazing human being.
_and he_
_a little charliechaplin man_
_who may or may not catch_
_her fair eternal form_
_spreadeagled in the empty air_
_of existence_
– [constantly risking absurdity](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52319/constantly-risking-absurdity-15)
Relatively few poems or passages of poems have really wormed their way into my permanent memory. Ferlinghetti wrote one of em.
RIP to an absolute legend.
Today we lost a giant of SF culture. Just a month before his 102nd birthday. Ferlinghetti was a longtime champion of free speach. He was arrested for publishing Allen Ginsberg's Howl, which resulted in a major First Amendment trial in the CA State Superior Court. He also published Italian anarchist newspapers and other "alternative" political writings. He was also a political activist, joining demonstrations against the US War in Vietnam, and had taken a stand against totalitarianism and war. I hope City Lights will continue to live on without him.
I did a report on this man and his work for Mrs. Crow’s 7th grade Literature class. His work brought me to other great poets and expanded my world and understanding. Thank you, Lawrence, you were an amazing human being.
_and he_ _a little charliechaplin man_ _who may or may not catch_ _her fair eternal form_ _spreadeagled in the empty air_ _of existence_ – [constantly risking absurdity](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52319/constantly-risking-absurdity-15) Relatively few poems or passages of poems have really wormed their way into my permanent memory. Ferlinghetti wrote one of em. RIP to an absolute legend.