Poetry as an insurgent art

In 1953 Lawrence Ferlinghetti founded the first paperback bookstore in the United States. In over five decades City Lights, the bookstore and publisher, has become a Mecca for millions. Ferlinghettis A Coney Island of the Mind (ND, 1958) is a number one best-selling volume of poetry by any living American poet. Now, New Directions is proud to publish his manifesto in a paperback edition. After A Lifetime, This (r)evolutionary Little Book Is Still A Work-in-progress, The Poet's Ars Poetica, To Which At 88 He Is Constantly Adding. From The Groundbreaking (and Bestselling) A Coney Island Of The Mind In 1958 To The Personal Epic Of Americus, Book I In 2003, Lawrence Ferlinghetti Has, In More Than Thirty Books, Been The Poetic Conscience Of America. Now In Poetry As Insurgent Art, He Offers, In Prose, His Primer Of What Poetry Is, Could Be, Should Be. The Result Is By Turns Tender And Furious, Personal And Political. If You Are A Reader Of Poetry, Find Out What Is Missing From The Usual Fare You Are Served; If You Are A Poet, Read At Your Own Risk--you Will Never Again Look At Your Role In The Same Way. Short And Inspiring, But Rarely Surprising, This Collection Of Remarks, Aphorisms And Exhortations About The Nature And Purpose Of Poetry Began In The Late 1950s, When Ferlinghetti Was Just Coming Into His Own As A Beat Poet And Publisher Of City Lights Books. After 50 Years Of Revisions And Additions, His Claims May Not Strike Experienced Readers As Fresh-and Some May Even Seem Cliched: The State Of The World, His First Page Declares, Calls Out For Poetry To Save It. On The Other Hand, Ferlinghetti's Very Large Body Of Fans (he Is One Of The Bestselling 20th-century American Poets) Should Find Reason And Justice In These Eternal Verities, Couched In Up-to-date Lingo: Poems Are E-mails From The Unknown Beyond Cyberspace, For Example. Beginning Teachers Of Creative Writing Should Also Find Ferlinghetti's Instructions Of Use: Read Between The Lines Of Human Discourse. Two Groups Of Aphorisms Make Up Most Of The Volume, To Which Ferlinghetti Adds A Short Essay And Two 1970s Poems. Modern Poetry Is Prose Encourages Young Writers To Discover The Dark Spirit Of Earth And Blood; Populist Manifesto #1 Hopes Whitman's Wild Children, However Pressed Down By Modernity, Will Soon Awake And Sing In The Open. Poetry As Insurgent Art -- What Is Poetry? -- Populist Manifesto #1 (1976) -- Populist Manifesto #2 (1978) -- Modern Poetry Is Prose (1978). By Lawrence Ferlinghetti. A New Directions Book. Includes Bibliographical References. Poetry As Insurgent Art 1 What is Poetry? 33 Forethoughts Populist Manifesto # 1 (1976) 69 Populist Manifesto # 2 (1978) 76 Modem Poetry Is Prose (1978) 85 Bibliographical Note 90