What Is Poetry? [Paperback]

Lawrence Ferlinghetti (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2000

Poetry. Having an aversion to the idea of discussing the craft of poetry or the process of creating a poem, Lawrence Ferlinghetti usually mumbles something about It's a trade secret when pressed on the subject. But WHAT IS POETRY? is the closest he has come to formulating an ars poetica, an ongoing project which he is constantly revising and expanding. Lawrence Ferlinghetti was the first Poet Laureate of San Francisco.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 132 pages
• Publisher: Creative Arts Book Company (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887393691
• ISBN-13: 978-0887393693
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,572,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mystical reflections on poetry, May 29, 2002

By 

Michael J. Mazza - See all my reviews
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This review is from: What Is Poetry? (Paperback)

Lawrence Ferlinghetti's "What Is Poetry?" consists of s series of statements, rendered in free verse, which reflect on the nature of poetry. According to a note at the beginning of the book, the roots of this text go back to an oral version recorded in the 1950s. The statements often have a mystical flavor; reading the book is like reading a sort of postmodern scripture. Examples of the statements:

"Poetry is news / from the frontiers of consciousness"; "A poem should arise to ecstasy / somewhere between speech and song"; "Words are living fossils / The poet should / piece the wild beast together / and make it sing"; "Poetry is religion / Religion is poetry."

Many of the sayings are quite striking and thought-provoking; the most intriguing of them invite re-reading and reflection. Overall the book makes a fascinating complement to a more conventional prose work about poetry (like Mary Oliver's "A Poetry Handbook").

If there is a flaw to this book, it is that many of Ferlinghetti's statements are, I believe, not just applicable to poetry, but to any form of good writing. Consider, for example, when he writes "The poet is a subversive barbarian / at the city gates / constantly challenging / our status quo." I think that such a statement is also true about many writers of prose or drama; thus such a statement doesn't necessarily offer any special insight into what distinguishes poetry from these other forms. Still, I really like this book and recommend it to readers, writers, and teachers of poetry.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars essense of poetry, January 5, 2001

By 

scott lettieri (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Is Poetry? (Paperback)

If you've ever had a hard time understanding or expressing yourself through poetry--this is the book for you. San Francisco's only poet Laureate, through a series of short observations about what poetry is, sums up the essence of the art form. The book's beauty lies in its brevity. No more than ten words on each page that goes to the heart of poetic expression.

It's a great book for any poetry lover.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Poetry is what exists between the lines.", April 7, 2001

By 

Laure-Madeleine - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Is Poetry? (Paperback)

"Be a poet, not a huckster. Don't cater, don't pander, especially not to possible audiences, readers, editors or publishers," is one of the recent challenges that Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti offered to budding poets from thirty San Francisco high schools. He knows. He's been writing poetry since his own school days in the late 1920s.

_What is Poetry?_ is a golden-covered pocketbook of prose-poetry, with sixty-four pages of one to four lines of free verse on each page. The opening Note says that "[a] very early prose version of this text was transcribed from a KPFA (FM) broadcast recorded by Mr. Ferlinghetti in the late 1950s under the title, _The Street's Kiss_ ." After much revising and expansion, including publication in his "Poetry As News" column in the San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, Mr. Ferlinghetti has shared his insights into this mystery of what is poetry and of what poetry shoud be.

Something one might find on the cutting-room floor is this preface that Mr. Ferlinghetti wrote in his column on January 16, 2000: " 'What is Poetry?' There are no doubt as many definitions of poetry as there are poems. Perhaps more, since there are more poetry professors and critics than there are poets. Perhaps there's a need in the new century for some new definitions. Or perhaps the golden oldies will hold up better than any. Risking the derision of postmodern eggheads, I'll put some of my old ones and some of my new ones to the test of the twenty-first century: Poetry is news from the frontiers of consciousness."

One might open this small book to any one of its pages and find "what exists between the lines." For here is a pleasure for the mind and a tasty treat for the senses.