Rating: 
Summary: The Beat Manifesto
Review: Let me start off by saying that, in the run of things, this type poetry is not my favorite. I'm more of a formalist myself, but I couldn't help but be impressed by much of this collection, which, along with Ginsberg's HOWL, kicked off the Beat Movement in American poetry in the 1950's.This is largely a verbal collage, a compendium of memories, impressions, chants, lists, and lyric fragments. The influence of Whitman is apparent in the freeform meditations on the human body and the populist tone of much of the book. This is a cry for people to throw off the constraints of materialism and return to a simpler way of living. It exalts the earth over industry, art over commerce, individualism over uniformity. In other places the shadows of Eliot and Yeats can be seen; indeed in a couple of poems Ferlinghetti freely borrows from those masters - see "The Junkman'Obbligato", for instance, which echoes Eliot's "The Waste Land" with the repeated refrain "Hurry please it's time." The book is divided into three sections. There is the title section then a series of seven pieces (including "Junkman") originally written for musical accompaniment and finally some selections from Ferlinghetti's first book PICTURES OF THE GONE WORLD. Not for all tastes but seminal nevertheless and eye-opening as well.
Rating:
Summary: The Beat Manifesto
Review: Let me start off by saying that, in the run of things, this type poetry is not my favorite. I'm more of a formalist myself, but I couldn't help but be impressed by much of this collection, which, along with Ginsberg's HOWL, kicked off the Beat Movement in American poetry in the 1950's. This is largely a verbal collage, a compendium of memories, impressions, chants, lists, and lyric fragments. The influence of Whitman is apparent in the freeform meditations on the human body and the populist tone of much of the book. This is a cry for people to throw off the constraints of materialism and return to a simpler way of living. It exalts the earth over industry, art over commerce, individualism over uniformity. In other places the shadows of Eliot and Yeats can be seen; indeed in a couple of poems Ferlinghetti freely borrows from those masters - see "The Junkman'Obbligato", for instance, which echoes Eliot's "The Waste Land" with the repeated refrain "Hurry please it's time." The book is divided into three sections. There is the title section then a series of seven pieces (including "Junkman") originally written for musical accompaniment and finally some selections from Ferlinghetti's first book PICTURES OF THE GONE WORLD. Not for all tastes but seminal nevertheless and eye-opening as well.
Rating:
Summary: great stuff!
Review: Like any collection, some poems are good, some are not so hot. "I am Waiting," however, is my favorite poem of all time. I would consider it worth the purchase price just for that poem. Junkman's Oblingatto is good too. Overall, very good.
Rating:
Summary: Coney Island
Review: This was the first Ferlinghetti I ever got my hands on, and it swept me away into a world from which I have yet to return. The preciseness of his words and the incredible attention to detail make this book well worth the read. It made me fall in love with poetry...and the passion of the heart.
Rating:
Summary: Bob Dylan of poetry
Review: When the old '57 Mercury gave up the ghost on New York Avenue in DC in 1964, Danny and I split. I went back later and found the lot where they had towed the old Merc, and retrieved Danny's back-pack which turned out to contain nothing but books, one of which was "Coney Island of the Mind." Over the years, I turned to it now and then and longed for the day when we could discuss it once again. "Christ stepped down" and took him home, but some things never change. Ferlinghetti is as relevant as he was with The Band.
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