Outside the leaves were falling and they cried Too soon! too soon!
On a concrete continent
spaced with bland billboards
the poet’s eye obscenely seeing
its surrealist landscape of
mindless prairies
supermarket suburbs
steamheated cemeteries
cinerama holy days
and protesting cathedrals
from Lost Angeles to Heaven
promising Free Elections
They writhe upon the page
drugged store cowboys and las vegas virgins
where the world rushes by
in a blather of asphault and delay
roads radiate into air
like the labyrinth wires
of a telephone central
and yet gobble up at last
to shrive out circus souls
the also imaginary
wafers of grace
To honor Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021), I offer this poem of lines entirely stolen from A Coney Island of the Mind.
Bartholomew Barker, Poet 
Lots of great lines here. Especially like “drugged store cowboys and las vegas virgins” – Good job reassembling them. And thanks for the link to read about him. He just died, 101 years old. Wow. Rest in Peace Sir.
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Thanks. He was the last of the Beats. I’ll encourage you to read Coney Island of the Mind. It’s only a couple dozen poems and his lines are much better in context.
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loan me the book, and I’ll read it. :)
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Deal!
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I need to read that book. Well done.
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You definitely need to read it. It’s great poetry.
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I founds some of the poems from his book on poets.org I will have to check them out.
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Love this book!
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It’s a classic!
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