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Primary source: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, "I Am Waiting," poem, 1958.
Caption: One of the beat poets, Ferlinghetti captures an alternative perspective on life in postwar America in this poem.
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 discover America
and wail
and I am waiting
for the discovery
of a new symbolic western frontier
and I am waiting
for the American Eagle
to really spread its wings
and straighten up and fly right
and I am waiting
for the Age of Anxiety
to drop dead
and I am waiting
for the war to be fought
which will make the world safe
for anarchy
and I am waiting
for the final withering away
of all governments
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder. . .
and I am waiting
for them to prove
that God is really American
and I am seriously waiting
for Billy Graham and Elvis Presley
to exchange roles seriously
and I am waiting
to see God on television
piped onto church altars
if only they can find
the right channel
to tune in on. . .
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder. . .
and I am waiting
for the human crowd
to wander off a cliff somewhere
clutching its atomic umbrella. . .
and I am waiting
for a reconstructed Mayflower
to reach America
with its picture story and tv rights
sold in advance to the natives . . .
and I am waiting
for Ole Man River
to just stop rolling along
past the country club
and I am waiting
for the deepest South
to just stop Reconstructing itself
in its own image
and I am waiting
for a sweet desegregated chariot
to swing low. . .
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder. . .
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Lawrence Ferlinghetti, "I Am Waiting," in A Coney Island of the Mind (New York: New Directions, 1958), 49–52.
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