Lawrence Ferlinghetti, "Constantly Risking Absurdity"

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 slight-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



Lawrence Ferlinghetti