a coney island of the mind by lawrence ferlinghetti

~, ~ I~ I 1 A CONEY ISLAND of the KIND 1 In Goya's greatest scenes we seem to see the people of the world exactly at the moment when they first attained the title of 'suffering humanity' They writhe upon the page in a veritable rage of adversity Heaped up groaning with babies and bayonets under cement skies in an abstract landscape of blasted trees bent statues bats wings and beaks slippery gibbets cadavers and carnivorous cocks and all the final hollering monsters of the 'imagination of disaster' they are so bloody real it is as if they really still existed And they do Only the landscape is changed They still are ranged along the roads plagued by legionaires false windmills The title of this book is taken from Henry Miller's INTO THE NIGHT LIFE. Index of Titles and First Lines, page 93 I ~ I I ISLAND OF THE MIND, page 9 2 ORAL MESSAGES, page 47 3 Poems from PICTURES OF THE GONE WORLD (1955), page 75 Manufactured in the United States of America Design and typography by Freda Browne New Directions Books are published for James Laughlin by New Directions Publishing Corporation, 333 Sixth Avenue, New York 10014. Except for brief passages quoted in a newspaper, magazine, radio, or television review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

Parts of the poem 'Autobiography' have appeared in Jam Session: An Anthology of Jazz, edited by Ralph J. 1 A CONEY Some of the poems in this book have been published in the following magazines to which grateful acknowledgment for permission to reprint is here given: The Evergreen Review, Ark II - Mobu I, The Nation, New Directions 16, Chicago Review. Poems by LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI A NEW DIRECTIONS BOOK SEVENTEEXTH PRINTING CONTENTS Copyright © 1958 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti Copyright 1955 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 58-7150 New Directions Paperbook No. I A CONEY ISLAND of the i II I I MIND to K.

A coney island of the mind by lawrence ferlinghetti