A Coney Island of the Mind: Poems [B0137]

1958 New Directions PB, fully legible - with some wear (93-pages). A collection of twenty-nine poems from the 1950s, 'composed to be read aloud' by an acclaimed American 'Beat poet', painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers in San Francisco. The title of this book is taken from Henry Miller's "Into the Night Life" and expresses the way Lawrence Ferlinghetti felt about these poems when he wrote them during a short period in the 1950's-as if they were, taken together, a kind of Coney Island of the mind, a kind of circus of the soul.

From Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Hey, it's Ferlinghetti! Nothing to dislike, everything to like. A poet who knows how to punch. What a joy rereading this of early "hip" years. I'm glad Ferlinghetti existed, that he wrote poetry, crafted it to a dantesque level of beauty, anointed it with intricacy and meaning. He gives worth to life."; "Ferlinghetti is a guy who gets it. He demystifies poetry in a way that centers its snapshot beauty to me. "Junkman's Obliggato" might be my favorite poem of all time."; "My introduction to Beat poet Ferlinghetti, who passed a few years ago. Ecstatic, musical, with an interesting use of form across the pages, these poems imagine a surreal Coney Island to symbolize the American soul. I adored this classic work."