Pity

Disclosure: With one exception, I write a short, positive blog every week of the year. The week of the Fourth of July is the one exception when my thoughts are on the state of our precious and fragile Democracy. This year’s post follows.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti (born in 1919, died in 2021 at the age of 101) was a poet, publisher, social activist and co-founder of the famous City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco. He called himself the last of the Bohemians and was a champion of the Beat Generation.

Ferlinghetti’s most famous book of poems was “Coney Island of the Mind”. It was published in 1958 and has sold over one million copies. One of the poems in the collection is entitled “Pity the Nation”. Ferlinghetti was inspired to write the piece after reading Lebanese-American poet Kahlil Gibran’s poem of the same title.

Here is Ferlinghetti’s version of the poem. I wish it could be splashed on billboards nationwide as we approach this momentous Fourth of July and upcoming Presidential election.