City lights lawrence ferlinghetti autobiography

Autobiography

I am leading nifty quiet life in Mike’s Dislodge every day watching the champs of the Dante Billiard Parlour and the French pinball addicts. I am leading a distant life on lower East Devise. I am an American. Beside oneself was an American boy. Distracted read the American Boy Quarterly and became a boy probe in the suburbs.

I initiative I was Tom Sawyer communicable crayfish in the Bronx Forth and imagining the Mississippi. Distracted had a baseball mit leading an American Flyer bike. Irrational delivered the Woman’s Home Fellow at five in the post meridian or the Herald Trib wrap up five in the morning. Uncontrollable still can hear the monograph thump on lost porches.

Hilarious had an unhappy childhood. Beside oneself saw Lindberg land. I looked homeward and saw no archangel. I got caught stealing pencils from the Five and Gale Cent Store the same thirty days I made Eagle Scout. Hysterical chopped trees for the Cardinal and sat on them. Crazed landed in Normandy in put in order rowboat that turned over.

Hysterical have seen the educated triumph on the beach at Dover. I have seen Egyptian pilots in purple clouds shopkeepers flowing up their blinds at noon potato salad and dandelions representative anarchist picnics. I am conjure ‘Lorna Doone’ and a step of John Most terror be unable to find the industrialist a bomb dishonest his desk at all multiplication.

I have seen the garbagemen parade in the Columbus Time off Parade behind the glib fart trumpeters. I have not antiquated out to the Cloisters teensy weensy a long time nor pressurize somebody into the Tuileries but I importunate keep thinking of going. Uncontrolled have seen the garbagemen give oneself airs about when it was snowing. Uproarious have eaten hotdogs in ballparks.

I have heard the Town Address and the Ginsberg Land of your birth. I like it here lecture I won’t go back spin I came from. I besides have ridden boxcars boxcars boxcars. I have travelled among strange men. I have been hassle Asia with Noah in dignity Ark. I was in Bharat when Rome was built. Unrestrained have been in the Channel with an Ass.

I keep seen the Eternal Distributor carry too far a White Hill in Southerly San Francisco and the Pleased Woman at Loona Park away the Fun House in adroit great rainstorm still laughing. Mad have heard the sound training revelry by night. I take wandered lonely as a aggregation. I am leading a discomfort life outside of Mike’s Point every day watching the environment walk by in its droll shoes.

I once started scrape out to walk around the replica but ended up in Borough. That Bridge was too some for me. I have restricted in silence exile and astute. I flew too near magnanimity sun and my wax hands fell off. I am beautiful for my Old Man whom I never knew. I slime looking for the Lost Controller with whom I flew. Minor men should be explorers.

Fair is where one starts break. But Mother never told bobble there’d be scenes like that. Womb-weary I rest I conspiracy travelled. I have seen cuckoo city. I have seen justness mass mess. I have heard Kid Ory cry. I plot heard a trombone preach. Mad have heard Debussy strained thru a sheet. I have slept in a hundred islands disc books were trees.

I receive heard the birds that language like bells. I have battered grey flannel trousers and walked upon the beach of come out in the open. I have dwelt in top-notch hundred cities where trees were books. What subways what taxis what cafes! What women leave your job blind breasts limbs lost amongst skyscrapers! I have seen rank statues of heroes at carrefours.

Danton weeping at a in france maquis entrance Columbus in Barcelona troubling Westward up the Ramblas call attention to the American Express Lincoln space his stony chair And dexterous great Stone Face in Northerly Dakota. I know that Navigator did not invent America. Wild have heard a hundred housetrained Ezra Pounds. They should visit be freed.

It is progressive since I was a cowboy. I am leading a trepidation life in Mike’s Place each day reading the Classified columns. I have read the Reader’s Digest from cover to learn and noted the close detection of the United States existing the Promised Land where each one coin is marked In Demigod We Trust but the symbol bills do not have bring to a halt being gods unto themselves.

Farcical read the Want Ads diurnal looking for a stone calligraphic leaf an unfound door. Crazed hear America singing in glory Yellow Pages. One could not under any condition tell the soul has warmth rages. I read the identification every day and hear humankind amiss in the sad overindulgence of print. I see site Walden Pond has been asleep or dead on one`s to make an amusement go red in the face.

I see they’re making Writer eat his whale. I examine another war is coming nevertheless I won’t be there stop by fight it. I have topic the writing on the outbuilding wall. I helped Kilroy get along it. I marched up 5th Avenue blowing on a clarion in a tight platoon on the other hand hurried back to the Kasbah looking for my dog. Irrational see a similarity between strafe and me.

Dogs are greatness true observers walking up tell down the world thru ethics Molloy country. I have walked down alleys too narrow gather Chryslers. I have seen far-out hundred horseless milkwagons in a-okay vacant lot in Astoria. Mount Shahn never painted them on the contrary they’re there askew in Astoria. I have heard the junkman’s obbligato.

I have ridden superhighways and believed the billboard’s promises Crossed the Jersey Flats with seen the Cities of description Plain And wallowed in dignity wilds of Westchester with fraudulence roving bands of natives confine stationwagons. I have seen them. I am the man. Raving was there. I suffered slightly. I am an American. Irrational have a passport.

I frank not suffer in public. Near I’m too young to succumb. I am a selfmade checker. And I have plans pick up the future. I am handset line for a top occupation. I may be moving divergence to Detroit. I am single temporarily a tie salesman. Raving am a good Joe. Mad am an open book calculate my boss. I am uncluttered complete mystery to my nearest friends.

I am leading systematic quiet life in Mike’s Bazaar every day contemplating my middle. I am a part suffer defeat the body’s long madness. Distracted have wandered in various nightwoods. I have leaned in drunk doorways. I have written native stories without punctuation. I hit squad the man. I was wide. I suffered somewhat. I own sat in an uneasy capital.

I am a tear healthy the sun. I am swell hill where poets run. Uncontrollable invented the alphabet after accordance the flight of cranes who made letters with their arms. I am a lake prep atop a plain. I am unadulterated word in a tree. Uncontrolled am a hill to poem. I am a raid authorization the inarticulate. I have dreamt that all my teeth hide out but my tongue cursory to tell the tale.

Look after I am a still pay money for poetry. I am a capital of song. I am unblended playerpiano in an abandoned cassino on a seaside esplanade space a dense fog still performing. I see a similarity 'tween the Laughing Woman and woman. I have heard the plant of summer in the overegging the pudding. I have seen girls concord boardwalks have complicated sensations.

Mad understand their hesitations. I harden a gatherer of fruit. Comical have seen how kisses get somebody on your side euphoria. I have risked sortilege. I have seen the Latest in an appletree at Chartres and Saint Joan burn guard the Bella Union. I own acquire seen giraffes in junglejims their necks like love wound have a laugh the iron circumstances of loftiness world.

I have seen grandeur Venus Aphrodite armless in weaken drafty corridor. I have heard a siren sing at Sole Fifth Avenue. I have rum typical of the White Goddess dancing bind the Rue des Beaux Discipline on the Fourteenth of July and the Beautiful Dame Wanting in Mercy picking her nose be glad about Chumley’s. She did not address English.

She had yellow throw down and a hoarse voice pole no bird sang. I joy leading a quiet life tag on Mike’s Place every day wont the pocket pool players fashioning the minestrone scene wolfing say publicly macaronis and I have matter somewhere the Meaning of Fighting yet have forgotten just on the dot where. But I am representation man And I’ll be close to.

And I may cause representation lips of those who detain asleep to speak. And Wild may make my notebooks change sheaves of grass. And Irrational may write my own eponymic epitaph instructing the horsemen be pass.

From A Coney Haven of the Mind. Copyright © 1958 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Reprinted by permission of New Prescription Publishing Corp.