brains falling out,

and stuff…

Book review:

Poetry as Insurgent Art

by Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (1919-2021)

American poet, painter, Socialist activist

I’m ignoring the Socialist activist thing in Ferlinghetti’s past. It’s really old news and it’s dull news—socialism isn’t and never was a clear and present danger in America, because the debilitating capitalist mentality and reality is entrenched.

Moving on to Ferlinghetti’s poetry: I confess I haven’t read a lot of it. I tried his Poetry as Insurgent Art (2007) and it didn’t leave me panting for more.

Much of Insurgent Art is a collection of one-liners, like “If you have nothing to say, don’t say it” and “Come out of your closet. It’s dark in there.”

Forsooth.

My takeaway from Poetry as Insurgent Art is that Ferlinghetti was in love with his own careless spontaneity.

I certainly acknowledge that some readers may view this work as the outpouring of a driven great spirit. Different strokes…

I think it is the slough of a generous but disconnected artist’s talent with words.

Ferlinghetti said “Don’t be so open-minded that your brains fall out.” Them’s words to live by, I guess…

Here’s my advice to folks who want to imitate M. Ferlinghetti:

Don’t be so open-minded that there’s nothing you won’t write.

Poetry as Insurgent Art is much too ordinary to be insurgent.

Take it from Walt Whitman,

you need a bit of “barbaric yawp” to do insurgent poetry.

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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2018 All rights reserved.

​Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 73 free verse poems,

and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)

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Book review: “Bartleby, the Scrivener”

Loneliness beyond understanding…

by Herman Melville

click here

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