Lawrence Ferlinghetti Poems

The world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don't mind happiness
not always being
...

Constantly risking absurdity
and death
whenever he performs
above the heads
...

I am waiting for my case to come up
and I am waiting
for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting
...

Sometime during eternity
some guys show up
and one of them
who shows up real late
...

Don't let that horse
         eat that violin
cried Chagall's mother
...

There's a breathless hush on the freeway tonight
Beyond the ledges of concrete
restaurants fall into dreams
with candlelight couples
...

The pennycandystore beyond the El
is where i first
fell in love
with unreality
...

Night closed my windows and
The sky became a crystal house
The crystal windows glowed
The moon
...

The great Chinese dragon which is the greatest dragon in all the
world and which once upon a time was towed across the
Pacific by a crew of coolies rowing in an open boat—was
the first real live dragon ever actually to reach these shores
...

It was a face which darkness could kill
in an instant
a face as easily hurt
by laughter or light
...