Democrat, Illinois - The ElectroLounge

50 !
Meeting Lawrence Ferlinghetti
I saw the sparkling eyes I’d sought standing
beside me on the chaotic corner of
Columbus and Broadway, North Beach San Francisco,
and I’d forgotten the journey, forgotten why
I’d put up with all-night trucks and
street fights, crowded cafes, and deliciously
heart-stopping cheesesteaks, I’d come here
to see Ferlinghetti, to shake his hand
and say thank you and to maybe
grab hold of the vanishing muse leaving
for its next host, old man Ferlinghetti
still bright and healthy, but he’s not
forming memories anymore, and slowly
this world’s slipping from him, and
Vaclav Havel, and the peacemonger poets of
the last great generation need new troops
to battle in these ongoing wars over hearts,
love must rise over all, above the conflicts
and the cancers and the technologies expanding
out beyond our control, eating the wonder-filled eyes
of youth before our children can absorb
all the glittering lights of hope
and promise, the return to Eden we
bring forth in words and fantasies,
the trail to Nirvana is a steep climb and
generations fade as they carry the
young to unforeseen heights,
Mr. Ferlinghetti, let me take the
sherpa’s guiding hold up this
once unscaleable mountain,
and we’ll dance together in the new sunlight
that will shine the morning’s dawn
from this mortal ledge
where we’ll part ways.
******
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