Lawrence+Ferlinghetti

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

="Dog" (from __A Coney Island of the Mind__ (1958))= code The dog trots freely in the street

and sees reality

and the things he sees

are bigger than himself

and the things he sees

are his reality

Drunks in doorways

Moons on trees

The dog trots freely thru the street

and the things he sees

are smaller than himself

Fish on newsprint

Ants in holes

Chickens in Chinatown windows

their heads a block away

The dog trots freely in the street

and the things he smells

smell something like himself

The dog trots freely in the street

past puddles and babies

cats and cigars

poolrooms and policemen

He doesn't hate cops

He merely has no use for them

and he goes past them

and past the dead cows hung up whole

in front of the San Francisco Meat Market

He would rather eat a tender cow

than a tough policeman

though either might do

And he goes past the Romeo Ravioli Factory

and past Coit's Tower

and past Congressman Doyle of the Unamerican Committee

He's afraid of Coit's Tower

but he's not afraid of Congressman Doyle

although what he hears is very discouraging

very depressing

very absurd

to a sad young dog like himself

to a serious dog like himself

But he has his own free world to live in

His own fleas to eat

He will not be muzzled

Congressman Doyle is just another

fire hydrant

to him

The dog trots freely in the street

and has his own dog's life to live

and to think about

and to reflect upon

touching and tasting and testing everything

investigating everything

without benefit of perjury

a real realist

with a real tale to tell

and a real tail to tell it with

a real live

barking

democratic dog

engaged in real

free enterprise

with something to say

about ontology

something to say

about reality

and how to see it

and how to hear it

with his head cocked sideways

at streetcorners

as if he is just about to have

his picture taken

for Victor Records

listening for

His Master's voice

and looking

like a living questionmark

into the

great gramophone

of puzzling existence

with its wondrous horn

which always seems

just about to spout forth

some Victorious answer

code  to everything

="Away above a Harborful ..." (from __Pictures of the Gone World__ (1955)=

 of caulkless houses among the charley noble chimneypots of a rooftop rigged with clotheslines a woman pastes up sails upon the wind hanging out her morning sheets with wooden pins O lovely mamma! her nearly naked teats throw thrust shadows when she stretches up to hang the last of her so white washed sins but it is wetly amorous and winds itself about her clinging to her skin so caught with arms upraised she tosses back her head in voiceless laughter and in choiceless gesture then shakes out  gold  hair while in the reachless seascape spaces between the blown white shrouds stand out the bright steamers to kingdom come ||
 * || Away above a harborful