Two at 87

The poet/singer/activist gods were very busy in 1919. They scored a double triumph when both Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Pete Seeger arrived. 87 years later they remain the benchmark of the humane ideal. A recent New Yorker piece celebrates Pete and while his voice is no longer what it was (capable of singing the same song twice at the same time…Arlo Guthrie) his mind and banjo remain sharp. I was fortunate enough to see and hear Ferlinghetti last night at Harvard (my lucky second sighting I actually sat and chatted with him in Chicago five years ago) and it was the first time I’ve ever seem a poet get a standing ovation both before and after a reading. I can tell you he holds bush’s butt to the same candle as he once did Johnson.