Wild Dreams of a New Beginning

by Ferlinghetti, Lawrence

• ISBN13: 9780811210751
• ISBN10: 0811210758
• Edition: 00
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1988-12-17
• Publisher: New Directions

Summary

Wild Dreams of a New Beginning brings together two acclaimed poetry volumes by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, one of our "ageless radicals and true bards" (Booklist). Who Are We Now? (1976), the first half of Wild Dreams, takes a long poetic look at the cultural fallout of a more radical time. This probing of the changes in the American psyche through the 1970s is carried forward in the second part, Landscapes of Living & Dying (1979) - a work originally hailed by Library Journal as "Ferlinghetti's strongest work since his 1957 A Coney Island of the Mind... [He] pursues his disheveled muse with the innocent passion of a young beatnik, hiding his authentic erudition behind a comfortable guise of spontaneous composition." Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Who Are We Now?
The Jack of Hearts	p. 1
Director of Alienation	p. 6
Wild Dreams of a New Beginning	p. 10
Lost Parents	p. 12
People Getting Divorced	p. 14
Short Story on a Painting of Gustav Klimt	p. 15
The 'Moving Waters' of Gustav Klimt	p. 17
I Am You	p. 19
At the Bodega	p. 21
Snapshot Epiphany	p. 22
Overheard Conversations	p. 24
The Heavy	p. 32
Great American Waterfront Poem	p. 34
Highway Patrol	p. 37
Seascape with Sun & Eagle	p. 39
Dissidents, Big Sur	p. 40
Alienation: Two Bees	p. 42
A Vast Confusion	p. 44
Olbers' Paradox	p. 45
Upon Reflection	p. 46
Matinal	p. 47
Deep Chess	p. 48
The Recurrent Dream	p. 50
A River Still to be Found	p. 51
Monet's Lilies Shuddering	p. 53
Insurgent Mexico	p. 54
A Meeting of Eyes in Mexico	p. 55
The General Song of Humanity	p. 57
Eight People on a Golf Course and One Bird of Freedom Flying Over	p. 59
Populist Manifesto	p. 61
Landscapes of Living & Dying
The Old Italians Dying	p. 67
The Sea and Ourselves at Cape Ann	p. 71
The Majesty	p. 74
The Pied Piper of Iron Mountain	p. 76
A Nation of Sheep	p. 79
The Love Nut	p. 82
Holiday Inn Blues	p. 84
Cloning at the 'Hawk & Dove'	p. 87
The End of Various Affairs	p. 89
A Sweet Flying Dream	p. 90
Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes	p. 92
The Billboard Painters	p. 94
Home Home Home	p. 97
San Jose Symphony Reception	p. 101
White on White	p. 102
An Elegy to Dispel Gloom	p. 105
Adieu a Charlot	p. 107
Look Homeward, Jack	p. 112
From 'Northwest Ecolog'
The Old Sailors	p. 114
Wild Life Cameo, Early Morn	p. 115
Clamshell Alliance	p. 116
Reading Apollinaire by the Rogue River	p. 118
Rough Song of Animals Dying	p. 120
Horses at Dawn	p. 123
Bibliographical Notes & Credits	p. 125
Index of Titles and First Lines	p. 127
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.