A Coney Island Of The Mind

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Damiano Abeni, Moira Egan

• Editore: minimum fax
• Anno: 2012
• ISBN:
  9788875214593
• Argomento: Literature
• Categoria: Classics

Pubblicata originariamente nel 1958, e da allora tradotta in tutto il mondo e venduta in oltre un milione di copie, A Coney Island of the Mind è l'opera più celebre del grande maestro della letteratura beat Lawrence Ferlinghetti, nonché a detta dei critici una delle raccolte poetiche più significative del Novecento. Irriverenti, psichedeliche, libertarie, queste quarantotto poesie scavano nel significato delle piccole cose comuni e ricompongono nel loro insieme ciò che annuncia il titolo: una «Coney Island mentale», appunto, un luna-park dell'anima.

2
Oral Messages

These seven poems were conceived specifically for jazz accompaniment and as such should be considered as spontaneously spoken “oral messages” rather than as poems written for the printed page. As a result of continued experimental reading with jazz, they are still in a state of change. “Autobiography” and “Junkman’s Obbligato” are available on the Fantasy LP recording No. 7002, “Poetry Readings in the Cellar”, which I made with Kenneth Rexroth and the Cellar Jazz Quintet of San Francisco.

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I Am Waiting

I am waiting for my case to come up

and I am waiting

for a rebirth of wonder

and I am waiting for someone

to really discover America

and wail

and I am waiting

for the discovery

of a new symbolic western frontier

and I am waiting

for the American Eagle

to really spread its wings

and straighten up and fly right

and I am waiting

for the Age of Anxiety

to drop dead

and I am waiting

for the war to be fought

which will make the world safe

for anarchy

and I am waiting

for the final withering away

of all governments

and I am perpetually awaiting

a rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for the Second Coming

and I am waiting

for a religious revival

to sweep thru the state of Arizona

and I am waiting

for the Grapes of Wrath to be stored

and I am waiting

for them to prove

that God is really American

and I am seriously waiting

for Billy Graham and Elvis Presley

to exchange roles seriously

and I am waiting

to see God on television

piped onto church altars

if only they can find

the right channel

to tune in on

and I am waiting

for the Last Supper to be served again

with a strange new appetizer

and I am perpetually awaiting

a rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for my number to be called

and I am waiting

for th...

Indice dei contenuti

• Copertina
• Indice
• / Nota dell’autore
• / Profilo bio-bibliografico
• / Bibliografia
• Una Coney Island della mente
• Messaggi orali
• Poesie da Fotografie del mondo andato (1955)
• A Coney Island of the Mind
• Oral Messages
• Poems from Pictures of the Gone World (1955)