Customer Reviews

How to Paint Sunlight: New Poems

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a real delight to anyone who enjoys poetry. Ferlinghetti still has it and has it in spades. His poems do something that most poets have forgotten how to do: COMMUNICATE! He is the poet for Everyman and the Everyman of poets. In an age of poetry slams and unintelligable linguistic pirouettes from Europe, Ferlighetti stands nearly alone. The poetry still has its political edge, there are lines in the section on Big Sur that will go into the thin volume that should be made on the poetry and prose that really describe the Big Sur experience. And finally, the last section, Into The Interior, where the poet turns the unflinching light of honesty on the death of Allen Ginsburg, and himself, is a simple, quiet apotheosis. Read this book.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti is one of the best and widely read of America's 20th century poets, who has been awarded numerous citations, awards, and recognitions for his work. How To Paint Sunlight: New Poems showcases for his legions of fans a new compendium of his work that demonstrates and documents a true literary master. Moored: A boat moored/In the deep shade/under a weeping willow/in the bend of a river//As the light fades/so does the boat/with its willow/with its river//Only memory remains/of the lovers/in the bottom of the boat/moored to each other//They too/Gone on.

I just picked up this book today,after eagerly awaiting it. It is worth reading, but if you are a fan of his older material ("Her","European Poems & Transitions","Coney Island of the Mind",etc. etc.) it is somewhat of a disappointment. Also,a few of these poems aren't all that 'new' per se. There is one where he wrote, "Ginsberg died 49 nights ago" and well, Ginsberg has been dead for four years now. There are a few memorable,beautifully lyrical lines..."Your heart in a flower pales the dawn" from, 'First, the News'. Other poems are funny in parts..."You don't get in free, & there's no chicken soup, and this ain't no Frank O'Hara lunch poem". Sadly though, for the most part this book is somewhat unmemorable.