These are My Rivers: New Selected Poems, 1955-1993 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

These are My Rivers: New Selected Poems, 1955-1993 Reviews

• 
  Emily

  I didn't finish this yet; to me, the best poetry books are the ones that you never actually finish but every time you pick it up, you find something wonderful. This is definitely one of those books.
• 
  Steven Godin

  
  In the lower left-hand corner
  of an album landscape
  I am walking thru a dark park
  with a noted nymphomaniac
  trying to discover
  for what she is noted
  
  We are talking as we walk
  of various villainies
  of church & state
  and of the tyrannies
  of love & hate
  
  The moon makes hairless nudes
  
  An alabaster girl upon her back
  becomes a body made of soap
  beneath a wet gypsy
  
  Suddenly we rush
  thru a bent gate
  into hot grass
  
  One more tree
  falls in the forest
• 
  Willow Redd

  When I took my first poetry writing class in college, my professor told me that my work reminded him of Lawrence Ferlinghetti. At the time, I hadn't read anything by Ferlinghetti, but being compared to someone who was a contemporary and friend of Ginsberg and Kerouac was fantastic! I immediately started reading some of his work, and eventually picked up this volume so I would have more to look through. It took me a while to read it, but here we are.
  
  This is a fantastic collection! There are writings from almost each period of Ferlinghetti's career, samples taken from other works he has released over time. There seems to be a focus on travel and art in many of these works, and one wonders if this collection also works as a bit of biography of the man, pinpointing where he was and what his mind was set to during each period of his life.
  
  There are poems in here that get my blood boiling with creativity. He makes me want to write, to create.
• 
  Jonathan Holleb

  One of my quintessential coffee shop/ reading in the park books...Ferlinghetti has been one of my favorite poets ever since I first read A Coney Island of the Mind...He likely changed my approach to writing poetry, in that his sporatic spacing and line breaks is something I use from time to time...Though some people find it distracting, I believe Ferlinghetti uses it to make you feel the movment of his words & paint a verbal picture in multiple ways...He is, after all, a painter as well as poet...I could ramble on forever, but this is the best collection of his work I have come across...It spans the vast majority of his poetic career...Favorite poems would be Autobiography, I Am Waiting, Retired Ballerinas, etc. etc. etc.
• 
  Jonny Cigar

  A friend, I shall call "Dean" told me that he read this book in the 3rd grade or something like that. Well, I read it last year and thought it was genius, for the most part. Ferlinghetti was recommended to me by Billy Collins. I remember the night well: I was reading a Collins poem and he mentioned this Ferlinghetti character. In my imaginative rocking chair, I phoned Billy and he told me to pick up the book titled something about rivers. Okay. Done. Great. Collins, I see where you got your inspiration you old dirty dog.
  
  
• 
  Scott Lee

  I've loved Ferlinghetti since I first encountered "Constantly Risking Absurdity" either in high school or college. His vivid imagery, his passionate connection to the public and to public issues, and his beautiful, beautiful, BEAUTIFUL language make him one of my favorite twentieth century poets.
• 
  Larry

  As a college student in the 1960s, I was entranced by Coney Island of the Mind and other Ferlinghetti books. "I am Waiting" still moves me, but I was disappointed by many of the other poems. His imagist style poems later in life were a nice surprise, however. He may have been a minor poet, but his role as a bookstore owner and publisher makes him significant in American literary history.
• 
  Cherie

  A- Ahhh, Ferlinghetti. He is a marvelous poet, and these poems are the kind that make you want to sit around all day and dream and wish you were around at the start of City Lights and during the Howl trial…a must for any Beat fans or Ferlinghetti fans.
• 
  Matt

  The most underrated of his crew, and the most accomplished: after all, he lived to tell the tale.
  
  Here's a tribute to him after he passed away at the impressive age of 101:
  
  
  https://artsfuse.org/223563/literary-...
• 
  jennifer

  A nice way to be introduced to Ferlinghetti- the book give a good sampling of his writing, with plenty opportunities to dog-ear the pages to re-read later.
• 
  amanda

  A great collection of his poetry.
• 
  Hanna Abi Akl

  A brilliant collection of poems encompassing memories and reflections. Ferlinghetti shows flexibility in his style but his words remain pertinent and artistic all thr same. A recommended read.
• 
  Edmund Davis-Quinn

  Like most poetry collections I would rather read the entire book than selected parts.
  
  Some good stuff but it's all a bit muddled.
  
  I do love "A Coney Island of the Mind" so I would like to read more Ferlinghetti in the future.
• 
  Andrea Janov

  Selected collections are always interesting because you get to see a poets change and progress in a condensed form. Ferlinghetti, ever the observer of the world, constantly refreshes his language and delivery.
• 
  Mark

  This volume lets you sample poems from all phases of Ferlinghetti’s career. Since this was my first exposure to him I found this helpful. I found I like his work from the late 70s best, particularly the selections from Who Are We Now? and Northwest Ecolog. Although I enjoyed some of the poems immensely, for my tastes Ferlinghetti’s poetry is too much from ‘in the head’ rather than descriptive of immediate experience.
• 
  Patricia N. McLaughlin

  Jazzy improvisational riffs on life’s songbook made Ferlinghetti the master Beat of his generation. This collection is full of masterpieces, too many favorites to list, except “Populist Manifesto,” “Rough Song of Animals Dying,” and his masterpiece, “History of the World: A TV Document-Drama,” which must be mentioned in all its glory.
• 
  Tyson

  This collection offers a good introduction to Ferlinghetti's work (which is, of course, terrific). Still, you'll probably want to skip the newer poems and head right to the good stuff at the back.
• 
  Jodi Gianakopoulos

  Amazing person.
• 
  Mark

  I really enjoyed this and found several poems that I really like across his decades of output.