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I AM WAITING (Excerpt)
by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

I am waiting 
to get some intimations 
of immortality 
by recollecting my early childhood 
and I am waiting 
for the green mornings to come again 
youth’s dumb green fields come back again 
and I am waiting 
for some strains of unpremeditated art 
to shake my typewriter 
and I am waiting to write
the great indelible poem
and I am waiting
for the last long careless rapture 
and I am perpetually waiting 
for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn 
to catch each other up at last 
and embrace
and I am waiting 
perpetually and forever 
a renaissance of wonder 

“I Am Waiting” appears in Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s 1958 collection A CONEY ISLAND OF THE MIND. According to Wikipedia, “There are approximately a million copies in print of A Coney Island of the Mind, and the book has been translated into over a dozen languages. It remains one of the best-selling and most popular books of poetry ever published.”

Find A CONEY ISLAND OF THE MIND at Amazon.com.

For a real treat, watch The Lawrence (Kansas) University Jazz Poetry Quartet (TImothy X. Troy,  Mark Urness, Brian Pertl, and Dane Richeson) perform “I Am Waiting” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti atyoutube.com.