I remember being 19 and a poet and coming out to the Bay area to see a college friend who moved here. She took me to City Lights Books and I was in awe of the bookstore that published Ginsberg and others; my glimpse of Lawrence Ferlinghetti was treasured.

Fast forward many years and it's Ferlinghetti's 90th birthday. Here's to you, Lawrence, a poet whose voice has lasted.

I am waiting

I am waiting for my case to come up
and I am waiting
for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting
for someone to really discover America
and wail
and I am waiting
for the discovery
of a new symbolic western frontier
and I am waiting
for the American Eagle
to really spread its wings
and straighten up and fly right
and I am waiting
for the Age of Anxiety
to drop dead
and I am waiting
for the war to be fought
which will make the world safe
for anarchy
and I am waiting
for the final withering away
of all governments
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder