<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div id="poem-top" class=""><h1 class="" style="margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 3px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Constantly Risking Absurdity (#15)</span></font></h1></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-transform: uppercase;"><br></span><div id="poem" class=""><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1432594154488_2585" style="line-height: 24px; margin-top: 25px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; ">Constantly risking absurdity</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> and death</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> whenever he performs</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> above the heads</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> of his audience</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> the poet like an acrobat</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> climbs on rime</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> to a high wire of his own making</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; ">and balancing on eyebeams</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> above a sea of faces</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> paces his way</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> to the other side of day</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> performing entrechats</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> and sleight-of-foot tricks</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; ">and other high theatrics</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> and all without mistaking</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> any thing</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> for what it may not be</div><br class=""><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> For he's the super realist</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> who must perforce perceive</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> taut truth</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> before the taking of each stance or step</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; ">in his supposed advance</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> toward that still higher perch</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; ">where Beauty stands and waits</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> with gravity</div><div class="" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> to start her death-defying leap</div><br class=""><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1432594154488_2586" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> And he</div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1432594154488_2584" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> a little charleychaplin man</div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1432594154488_2633" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> who may or may not catch</div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1432594154488_2636" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> her fair eternal form</div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1432594154488_2634" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> spreadeagled in the empty air</div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1432594154488_2635" style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "> of existence</div></div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1432594154488_2638" style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding-top: 24px; "><div dir="ltr" class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1432594154488_2637"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Lawrence Ferlinghetti</div></div></div></body></html>