Lawrence Ferlinghetti died at the tender age of 101. I read the Beats in my 20's, and at some point found them to be a bit sloppy. I liked their revolutionary message, but I didn't experience their writing as exact or sublime. I thought it was cool that Kerouac was inspired by Bird. I saw Ginsberg on the street when I lived on 12th street, but I never talked to him. Ferlinghetti had a bookstore and a publishing company, so his support of the arts was also a bit like Emerson of the Transcendentalist, he supported the movement in many ways, as well as being one of the movements most articulate examples. He was probably the most educated of the beats with a Ph.D from the Sorbonne. His first poetry book sold over a million copies, which is quite a lot for a poetry book in 1958. Here is a poem from that book that I read today. I am Waiting (1958): 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 disc...