Two Moscow memories from the recently-published Writing Across The Landscape
"On the walls of the Writers Union Cafe, I saw Allen's three-fish symbol, drawn by him here in summer 1965 & I drew woman nude with inscription, "The door to the invisible is visible"
"Zoja Voznesensky concluded, after a discussion of Ginsberg (who had visited Moscow, summer of '65) that Ginsberg was concerned with the interior world while I was concerned with the outside world and therefore my poetry was "more comprehensive" (or something like that - this was through an interpreter). I asked why, then, was his poetry so much more universal than mine. She replied that because the interior was more important than the exterior………. Later I reflected that if she knew Allen better, she might realize that it was Allen who is in fact the extrovert, I the introvert…."
Lawrence Ferlinghetti turns, believe it or not, ninety-seven today.
Happy Birthday, Lawrence! -
Check in on all-things-Ferlinghetti on Lawrence'sCity Lightspage - here
(and his Facebook Fan Page - here)
Ferlinghetti interviewed by Jonah Raskin for the local San Francisco newspapers (in June of last year)
Recent interviews - (and Beat-international interviews) - Following up our recent notice of an Italian one, the ever-sprightly Lawrence Ferlinghetti interviewed in Spanish - here
Here's Lawrence's elegy (from 1977) on Allen:
And don't forget, of course, this book:
