"Constantly Risking Absurdity" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Lawrence Ferlinghetti was born on March 24, 1919 in Bronxville, New York. He lived with his two college friends on Little Whale Boat Island in Casco Bay, Maine which gave him a love for the sea. His interests in writing and entertainment began after World War II. 

Constantly risking absurdity

                                             and death

            whenever he performs

                                        above the heads

                                                            of his audience

   the poet like an acrobat

                                 climbs on rime

                                          to a high wire of his own making

and balancing on eyebeams

                                     above a sea of faces

             paces his way

                               to the other side of day

    performing entrechats

                               and sleight-of-foot tricks

and other high theatrics

                               and all without mistaking

                     any thing

                               for what it may not be

       For he's the super realist

                                     who must perforce perceive

                   taut truth

                                 before the taking of each stance or step

in his supposed advance

                                  toward that still higher perch

where Beauty stands and waits

                                     with gravity

                                                to start her death-defying leap

      And he

             a little charleychaplin man

                                           who may or may not catch

               her fair eternal form

                                     spreadeagled in the empty air

                  of existence

Ferlinghetti compares the poet to an acrobat, who are those that perform for other's entertainment and risk their own lives, in his poem, "Constantly Risking Absurdity." Ferlinghetti argues, through his comparison, that entertainment in the form of a circus is not unlike the entertainment that stems from poetry or more accurately the creation of poetry. The poet who artistically synthesizes his own structure of poetry is an acrobat, who whimsically climbs to a high wire of his own making. A poet that fails to capture the audience with his intricate tricks and theatrics falls on his way to the other side like an acrobat who fails to entertain his audience and falls from grace. The structure of the poem, which is separated by stresses, compares to the wild yet graceful performance of an acrobat. The beauty of a poem is dependent on the poet, like a charleychaplin man, who may or may not accurately express his message. The audience does not know how the act will continue or end, all the while acknowledging the genius of the acrobat. The suspense held by an audience that watches as an acrobat perform is mirrored by our own suspense as to how Ferlinghetti will express his ideals through his poem. In this way, we the readers are the audience. We judge what we can perceive, similar to an audience that does not accurately see the entire performance of an acrobat simply because they are too far away from his art. The audience captures their image of the acrobat according to how they perceive it as we understand poetry depending on how we analyze it.