I haven't read enough Iris Murdoch to have a clear idea of her political
beliefs, but in /The Book and the Brotherhood, /the writer of "the
book," David Crimond, had perhaps a Ferlinghetti view of politics.
Crimond would have read /A Coney Island of the Mind /and agreed with
most of it. Crimond in his too-brief argument with Gerard Hernshaw
describes his "revolution" as a form of Marxism not involving
terrorism. Hernshaw read Crimond's book, is impressed, but believes
Crimond is wrong. Hernshaw is, after reading Crimond, inspired to write
a book of his own -- all very civilized, no terrorism involved.
Hernshaw presents the brief idea most of us in the West have, namely
that Western Liberal Democracy with all its warts and faults satisfies
society's needs and wants better than any other form of government tried
in the past or imagined for the future, and where it demonstrably fails,
politicians in the wings promise to fix its failures and hope to be
elected so they can do so. And we, with whatever optimism we can muster
continue to go to the polls hoping to give the best ones their chance.
Lawrence
//
On 2/23/2021 11:25 PM, epostboxx@xxxxxxxx wrote:
I must confess that I didn't even know he was still alive - and now he's not ...
I Am Waiting (from A CONEY ISLAND OF THE MIND - 1958)
I am waiting for my case to come up
and I am waiting
for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting
for someone to really discover America
and wail
and I am waiting
for the discovery
of a new symbolic western frontier
and I am waiting
for the American Eagle
to really spread its wings
and straighten up and fly right
and I am waiting
for the Age of Anxiety
to drop dead
and I am waiting
for the war to be fought
which will make the world safe
for anarchy
and I am waiting
for the final withering away
of all governments
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the Second Coming
and I am waiting
for a religious revival
to sweep through the state of Arizona
and I am waiting
for the Grapes of Wrath to be stored
and I am waiting
for them to prove
that God is really American
and I am waiting
to see God on television
piped’ onto church altars
if only they can find
the right channel
to tune in on
and I am waiting
for the Last Supper to be served again
with a strange new appetizer
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for my number to be called
and I am waiting
for the Salvation Army to take over
and I am waiting
for the meek to be blessed
and inherit the earth
without taxes and I am waiting
for forests and animals
to reclaim the earth as theirs
and I am waiting
for a way to be devised
to destroy all nationalisms
without killing anybody
and I am waiting
for linnets and planets to fall like rain
and I am waiting for lovers and weepers
to lie down together again
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the Great Divide to ‘be crossed
and I am anxiously waiting
for the secret of eternal life to be discovered
by an obscure general practitioner
and I am waiting
for the storms of life
to be over
and I am waiting
to set sail for happiness
and I am waiting
for a reconstructed Mayflower
to reach America
with its picture story and tv rights
sold in advance to the natives
and I am waiting
for the lost music to sound again
in the Lost Continent
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the day
that maketh all things clear
and I am awaiting retribution
for what America did
to Tom Sawyer
and I am waiting
for the American Boy
to take off Beauty’s clothes
and get on top of her
and I am waiting
for Alice in Wonderland
to retransmit to me
her total dream of innocence
and I am waiting
for Childe Roland to come
to the final darkest tower
and I am waiting
for Aphrodite
to grow live arms
at a final disarmament conference
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting
to get some intimations
of immortality
by recollecting my early childhood
and I am waiting
for the green mornings to come again
youth’s dumb green fields come back again
and I am waiting
for some strains of unpremeditated art
to shake my typewriter
and I am waiting to write
the great indelible poem
and I am waiting
for the last long careless rapture
and I am perpetually waiting
for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn
to catch each other up at last
and embrace
and I am waiting
perpetually and forever
a renaissance of wonder
Lawrence Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021)
Chris Bruce, in
Kiel, Germany------------------------------------------------------------------
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