We were just a one-room bookstore

we didn’t have any money for lawyers

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Πόσο σημαντική είναι η δουλειά των εκδοτών και των βιβλιοπωλείων  το έχουμε όλοι καταλάβει.  Πόσο μπορεί να αναδείξει ανθρώπους, ρεύματα και να επηρεάσει την δραστηριότητα της γραφής και της σκέψης. Στην Ελλάδα  έχουμε επίσης  παράδοση σε αυτό και έχω σημειώσει σε άλλο ημερολόγιο  μια λίστα από τους εκδοτικούς οίκους στην Ελλάδα και τον ρόλο που διαδραμάτισαν.  Τώρα  κάνω μνεία  στο  βιβλιοπωλείο  City Lights Bookstore, που ιδρύθηκε το 1953 στο  San Francisco, California, από τον  Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Ένα βιβλιοπωλείο  πρότυπο,  που επηρέασε την τότε  και την  εκεί ποιητική ροή – βέβαια  άλλες εποχές, άλλη χώρα, άλλες διεκδικήσεις.  Κρατώ  στα χέρια μου ένα βιβλίο των Εκδόσεων  Νεφέλη με ποιήματα του Lawrence Ferlinghetti.  Μου αρέσει η καθαρή και απλή προσέγγιση της καθημερινότητας  αλλά και των συλλογισμών του. Δεν κρύβει τίποτα. Αυτός έτσι έδρασε-αντέδρασε στην εποχή του. Παραθέτω ένα πόνημα  του Lawrence Ferlinghetti στη γλώσσα που γράφτηκε, ένα ποίημα του  που αγαπώ.

I Am Waiting, by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

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

I am waiting for the Second Coming

and I am waiting

for a religious revival

to sweep thru the state of Arizona

and I am waiting

for the Grapes of Wrath to be stored

and I am waiting

for them to prove

that God is really American

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 waiting

for the Last Supper to be served again

with a strange new appetizer

and I am perpetually awaiting

a rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for my number to be called

and I am waiting

for the Salvation Army to take over

and I am waiting

for the meek to be blessed

and inherit the earth

without taxes

and I am waiting

for forests and animals

to reclaim the earth as theirs

and I am waiting

for a way to be devised

to destroy all nationalisms

without killing anybody

and I am waiting

for linnets and planets to fall like rain

and I am waiting for lovers and weepers

to lie down together again

in a new rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for the Great Divide to be crossed

and I am anxiously waiting

for the secret of eternal life to be discovered

by an obscure general practitioner

and I am waiting

for the storms of life

to be over

and I am waiting

to set sail for happiness

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 the lost music to sound again

in the Lost Continent

in a new rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for the day

that maketh all things clear

and I am awaiting retribution

for what America did

to Tom Sawyer

and I am waiting

for Alice in Wonderland

to retransmit to me

her total dream of innocence

and I am waiting

for Childe Roland to come

to the final darkest tower

and I am waiting

for Aphrodite

to grow live arms

at a final disarmament conference

in a new rebirth of wonder

I am waiting

to get some intimations

of immortality

by recollecting my early childhood

and I am waiting

for the green mornings to come again

youth’s dumb green fields come back again

and I am waiting

for some strains of unpremeditated art

to shake my typewriter

and I am waiting to write

the great indelible poem

and I am waiting

for the last long careless rapture

and I am perpetually waiting

for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn

to catch each other up at last

and embrace

and I am awaiting

perpetually and forever

a renaissance of wonder

[Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “I Am Waiting” from A Coney Island of the Mind. Copyright © 1958 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation]

[Copyright ©  Μαρία  Σκουλαρίκου-Πανούτσου]

ΑΝΑΚΟΙΝΩΣΗ: Ενημερώνουμε τους αγαπητούς αναγνώστες ότι η Στήλη «Εξομολογήσεις ενός ημερολογίου», της Μαρίας Πανούτσου, ξεκινώντας από την Τρίτη 12 Σεπτεμβρίου 2017 και μετά θα δημοσιεύεται κάθε 15 ημέρες, τουτέστιν κάθε δεύτερη Τρίτη την ίδια ώρα, στις 21.00.