Lawrence Ferlinghetti: "Recipe for Happiness in Khabarovsk or Anyplace"

                                 One grand boulevard with trees
                                 with one grand café in sun
                                 with strong black coffee in very small cups

                                 One not necessarily very beautiful
                                 man or woman who loves you

                                 One fine day



"Recipe for Happiness in Khabarovsk or Anyplace" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, from Endless Life: The Selected Poems. © New Directions, 1981.

Thanks to Mark Palinski for suggesting this poem for our collection.

Art credit: "Joe the Art of Coffee—Two Macchiatos," photograph by Adam Goldberg.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti: "# 46"

And every poem and every picture
                       a sensation in the eye and heart
Something that jolts you awake
                from the rapt sleep of living
        in a flash of pure epiphany
                     where all stands still
                                  in a diamond light
        transfixed
                      revealed
                                  for what it truly is
                                                           in all its mystery
So a bird is an animal
                       flown into a tree
                                            singing inscrutable melodies
As a lover stands transparent
              Screened against the sun
                            Smiling darkly in the blinding light

"# 46" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, from A Coney Island of the Mind: Poems. © New Directions, 1968.

Image credit: "Radiance," acrylic on canvas, by Simon Cook (originally color).