I took this photo last month in the heart of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s San Francisco, standing outside the famous and beloved City Lights Books, with Jack Kerouac, his ghosts, a fun collection of tourists, and a small-but-determined group of regulars day-drinking at Vesuvio Cafe behind me.
I love that song. It was so right on the money with how I was feeling.
The last two books I bought from City Lights were Poetry As An Insurgent Art (a tiny black and red edition) and a book on British artist Linder Sterling (Buzzcocks' sleeve art, Friend of Moz). Back in the mid 1990s they carried two issues of my zine -and I took trade for a book of poems by Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems(1992), and a biography of Delmore Schwartz, both of which I still have. I haven't been back since my husband passed. But maybe one day. Its still a magical place. A good place to dream.
From down here in Brunswick East, Victoria, on board the rumbling #96 tram to St Kilda beach. The power of poetry. And observation, probably. The placement of a phrase. The slanty light of early winter. Play on.
As a teenager, my parents sent me to boarding school. In theory, a privilege. In practice, four years of being looked down on by my age-peers and pushed to go to a brand-name college by faculty.
There was one bookstore in the godforsaken little town where my school was located. In it, I found a copy of Ferlinghetti's "A Coney Island of the Mind" -- the book that saved my life.
Awesome post Emma! I love bookstores too and also seem to walk out with more books than intended. Yesterday I went in 'just for a look' and left with two I've been meaning to read for a while: In Our Time by Hemingway and Walden by Thoreau. I've already got enough books on my plate so at least they're both quite short! Haha
No Happy Endings is gorgeous BTW. A wonderfully bittersweet song with a lovely arrangement, and the recording is so lush. Congratulations! :-)
I love all three of those Nashville bookshops (plus the Grimey’s basement). We had our book release party at The Bookshop. Bookshops are such lifelines.
Congratulations on your new album! I’m really looking forward to it.
I have a fond memory of visiting SF and I went to City Lights, Amoeba, the Stinking Rose (restuarant with garlic in everything including deserts) and ate in Chinatown. Great bookstores, record stores and restaurants are such rewarding experiences to recharge oneself.
I share your love affair with City Lights bookstore, Vesuvio Cafe (actually a bar and absinthe saloon where Jefferson Airplane and countless other great artists hung out) and Kerouac alley in between both. If you’re ever in Iowa, specifically Iowa City , please visit Prairie Lights bookstore and you’ll find yourself having a new affair.
Thank you for reminding me that I want to read some Ferlinghetti. I am constantly reading and buying or borrowing books, but poetry has taken a backseat lately.
Looking forward to hearing the whole album; I like the new single.
When it comes to apocalyptic times, they may end, but you wouldn’t really want them to (post apocalyptic sounds like small insects scurrying over a rock hurdling through space). It is a constant challenge, and I need people like you to help me keep my head above the rolling tide. Long may you sing, write and breathe!
Songsters yearn for poetic inspiration, while poets yearn for the popularity of song. (Thinking of Allen Ginsberg's Dylan obsession.) I think Leonard Cohen did a good job of straddling that divide, although he was only 'popular' in his golden age. Just keep 'blackening pages' and you'll get there!
I love that song. It was so right on the money with how I was feeling.
The last two books I bought from City Lights were Poetry As An Insurgent Art (a tiny black and red edition) and a book on British artist Linder Sterling (Buzzcocks' sleeve art, Friend of Moz). Back in the mid 1990s they carried two issues of my zine -and I took trade for a book of poems by Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems(1992), and a biography of Delmore Schwartz, both of which I still have. I haven't been back since my husband passed. But maybe one day. Its still a magical place. A good place to dream.
I love this, Emma.
From down here in Brunswick East, Victoria, on board the rumbling #96 tram to St Kilda beach. The power of poetry. And observation, probably. The placement of a phrase. The slanty light of early winter. Play on.
As a teenager, my parents sent me to boarding school. In theory, a privilege. In practice, four years of being looked down on by my age-peers and pushed to go to a brand-name college by faculty.
There was one bookstore in the godforsaken little town where my school was located. In it, I found a copy of Ferlinghetti's "A Coney Island of the Mind" -- the book that saved my life.
Awesome post Emma! I love bookstores too and also seem to walk out with more books than intended. Yesterday I went in 'just for a look' and left with two I've been meaning to read for a while: In Our Time by Hemingway and Walden by Thoreau. I've already got enough books on my plate so at least they're both quite short! Haha
No Happy Endings is gorgeous BTW. A wonderfully bittersweet song with a lovely arrangement, and the recording is so lush. Congratulations! :-)
I love all three of those Nashville bookshops (plus the Grimey’s basement). We had our book release party at The Bookshop. Bookshops are such lifelines.
Congratulations on your new album! I’m really looking forward to it.
I have a fond memory of visiting SF and I went to City Lights, Amoeba, the Stinking Rose (restuarant with garlic in everything including deserts) and ate in Chinatown. Great bookstores, record stores and restaurants are such rewarding experiences to recharge oneself.
I share your love affair with City Lights bookstore, Vesuvio Cafe (actually a bar and absinthe saloon where Jefferson Airplane and countless other great artists hung out) and Kerouac alley in between both. If you’re ever in Iowa, specifically Iowa City , please visit Prairie Lights bookstore and you’ll find yourself having a new affair.
Thank you for reminding me that I want to read some Ferlinghetti. I am constantly reading and buying or borrowing books, but poetry has taken a backseat lately.
Looking forward to hearing the whole album; I like the new single.
When it comes to apocalyptic times, they may end, but you wouldn’t really want them to (post apocalyptic sounds like small insects scurrying over a rock hurdling through space). It is a constant challenge, and I need people like you to help me keep my head above the rolling tide. Long may you sing, write and breathe!
❤️
Songsters yearn for poetic inspiration, while poets yearn for the popularity of song. (Thinking of Allen Ginsberg's Dylan obsession.) I think Leonard Cohen did a good job of straddling that divide, although he was only 'popular' in his golden age. Just keep 'blackening pages' and you'll get there!