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A Far Rockaway of the Heart

4.11 of 5 stars 4.11 · rating details · 283 ratings · 10 reviews

A sequence of one hundred and one poems with recurrent themes, it includes various sections on love, art, music, history, and literature, as well as confrontations with major figures in the avant-garde before the arrival of the Beat generation. This edition now includes eighteen new poems from Ferlinghetti's "Pictures of the Gone World" which he publishes under his City Li...more

Paperback, 160 pages

Published September 17th 1998 by New Directions (first published 1997)

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Beat Lit

121st out of 134 books — 69 voters

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Jan 04, 2012 Christina Marie Rau rated it 5 of 5 stars

Lawrence Ferlinghetti's A Coney Island Of The Mind made me become a serious poet. I've written poetry for as long as I could write, but I read that in college and I became a different kind of writer. I wrote with purpose, realizing that I could use words to be someone.

Now, over ten years after first reading that collection, I borrowed A Far Rockaway Of The Heart. I have no reasons for not reading it sooner. I've read a lot of Ferlinghetti's other stuff. I've seen it on the library shelf. Finall...more

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Jun 18, 2009 Bonnie rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the pleasures I’ve rediscovered is reading a poem each morning. Many years ago when I took a Teachers as Scholars course in African American literature, I was given Norton’s Anthology of African American Literature. I remember a conversation I had with Judy Steinbergh, our Poet in Residence at Driscoll, regarding the idea of reading a poem a day. For some months I read a poem each morning before work as I ate my breakfast.

Some years later here I am once again returning to this lovely pat...more

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May 25, 2009 Natalia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: own, 2009

Still beautiful, but this is certainly not just more of "A Coney Island of the Mind". Ferlinghetti sounds older and a little less enamored of the world.

For the first half of the book, I kind of struggled. Poems about love are sometimes too personal to feel universal, and these were like that. And poems about artists... too meta-artistic. I wasn't feeling it. Finally, though there were a string of poems about Rome and travels elsewhere in Europe, and these had the wonder and humor I had been wait...more

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Feb 14, 2009 Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is some of the best poetry I've ever read.

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Dec 12, 2012 Jay Woodman rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of the outstanding poets for me.

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Sep 01, 2007 David added it

Shelves: poetry

the sequel to 'a coney island of the mind' released decades later. a similar tone, running the range of poetry from serious to funny, engaged to intimate. get it..

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May 29, 2007 kate rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: poetry

The wait was worth it for Ferlinghetti's follow-up to Coney Island. One of my favorite poetry books - masterful writing.

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Dec 06, 2008 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars

98.6% of the time I find poetry intolerable. But I like this. I would recommend it to people allergic to the genre.

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Feb 19, 2008 Sivan rated it 5 of 5 stars

My favorite book of poems.

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Jan 04, 2008 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

my favorite book of poems

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May 21, 2013 Nate W. Gearhart marked it as to-read

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May 19, 2013 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars

May 15, 2013 Gen Proofreads rated it 5 of 5 stars

May 13, 2013 Daniel Sinclair rated it 5 of 5 stars

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May 11, 2013 Tea Krulos rated it 4 of 5 stars

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May 06, 2013 Richard rated it 5 of 5 stars

May 06, 2013 Chiara Shea rated it 5 of 5 stars

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Apr 23, 2013 Jesse Poe added it · review of another edition

Apr 21, 2013 Ben marked it as to-read

Apr 14, 2013 Vanessa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Apr 14, 2013 Aaron Hollander marked it as to-read

Shelves: poetry

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Apr 09, 2013 Fred rated it 2 of 5 stars

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About Lawrence Ferlinghetti

A prominent voice of the wide-open poetry movement that began in the 1950s, Lawrence Ferlinghetti has written poetry, translation, fiction, theater, art criticism, film narration, and essays. Often concerned with politics and social issues, Ferlinghetti’s poetry countered the literary elite's definition of art and the artist's role in the world. Though imbued with the commonplace, his poetry canno...more A prominent voice of the wide-open poetry movement that began in the 1950s, Lawrence Ferlinghetti has written poetry, translation, fiction, theater, art criticism, film narration, and essays. Often concerned with politics and social issues, Ferlinghetti’s poetry countered the literary elite's definition of art and the artist's role in the world. Though imbued with the commonplace, his poetry cannot be simply described as polemic or personal protest, for it stands on his craftsmanship, thematics, and grounding in tradition.

Ferlinghetti was born in Yonkers in 1919, son of Carlo Ferlinghetti who was from the province of Brescia and Clemence Albertine Mendes-Monsanto. Following his undergraduate years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he served in the U.S. Navy in World War II as a ship's commander. He received a Master’s degree from Columbia University in 1947 and a Doctorate de l’Université de Paris (Sorbonne) in 1950. From 1951 to 1953, when he settled in San Francisco, he taught French in an adult education program, painted, and wrote art criticism. In 1953, with Peter D. Martin, he founded City Lights Bookstore, the first all-paperbound bookshop in the country, and by 1955 he had launched the City Lights publishing house.

The bookstore has served for half a century as a meeting place for writers, artists, and intellectuals. City Lights Publishers began with the Pocket Poets Series, through which Ferlinghetti aimed to create an international, dissident ferment. His publication of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl & Other Poems in 1956 led to his arrest on obscenity charges, and the trial that followed drew national attention to the San Francisco Renaissance and Beat movement writers. (He was overwhelmingly supported by prestigious literary and academic figures, and was acquitted.) This landmark First Amendment case established a legal precedent for the publication of controversial work with redeeming social importance.

Ferlinghetti’s paintings have been shown at various galleries around the world, from the Butler Museum of American Painting to Il Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. He has been associated with the international Fluxus movement through the Archivio Francesco Conz in Verona. He has toured Italy, giving poetry readings in Roma, Napoli, Bologna, Firenze, Milano, Verona, Brescia, Cagliari, Torino, Venezia, and Sicilia. He won the Premio Taormino in 1973, and since then has been awarded the Premio Camaiore, the Premio Flaiano, the Premio Cavour. among others. He is published in Italy by Oscar Mondadori, City Lights Italia, and Minimum Fax. He was instrumental in arranging extensive poetry tours in Italy produced by City Lights Italia in Firenze. He has translated from the Italian Pier Paolo Pasolin’s Poemi Romani, which is published by City Lights Books. In San Francisco, his work can regularly be seen at the George Krevsky Gallery at 77 Geary Street.

Ferlinghetti’s A Coney Island of the Mind continues to be the most popular poetry book in the U.S. It has been translated into nine languages, and there are nearly 1,000,000 copies in print. The author of poetry, plays, fiction, art criticism, and essays, he has a dozen books currently in print in the U.S., and his work has been translated in many countries and in many languages. His most recent books are A Far Rockaway of the Heart (1997), How to Paint Sunlight (2001), and Americus Book I (2004) published by New Directions.

He has been the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Los Angeles Times’ Robert Kirsch Award, the BABRA Award for Lifetime Achievement, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Award for Contribution to American Arts and Letters, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award. Ferlinghetti was named San Francisco’s Poet Laureate in August 1998.(less)

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