Letter from the Publisher
Welcome to Family, Friends, Neighbors, Colleagues and Readers of Syndic Literary Journal:
First, a few words about the genesis of this Ferlinghetti Memorial issue.
My friend and colleague, Stanley Barkan, suggested I should consider publishing a Memorial Issue for Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti who lived for more than a century and in San Francisco’s North Beach for more than 70 years. Ferlinghetti is credited with transforming the modern day world of poetry.
Besides, Stanley observed, April 2021 is Poetry Month in the the U.S. and it would make for a good fit.
I thought about it.
Literally, the only thing I knew about Ferlinghetti was that he owned City Lights Bookstore in North beach, and during my five years of teaching high school in Midtown San Francisco ~ 1958-1963 – I had spent countless hours hanging out at City Lights Book Store reading bits and pieces of the paperback books that filled the three floors of the building on Columbus Ave. It was during this same period that I first published five issues s of my then newly minted Syndic Literary Journal.
Stan was right . . . I should publish a Ferlinghetti Memorial Issue.
But let me tell you right up front, this Memorial Issue would not exist without the more than two dozen volunteer narrators who put their heart and soul into ripping the written words off the pages of Ferlinghetti’s poems to give them life, meaning and the opportunity to be heard!
Narration is the Art of the Spoken Word and you will find it in these pages laid bare for you to think and wonder about. You will not be disappointed.
Some will say this Memorial Issue ~ consisting of almost seventy chapters ~ is too long! Who can possibly make their way through it all? Perhaps this is the case, I have no way of knowing, but I do know this: when a poet lives for more than a century writing up a storm that is felt around the globe, how could a Lawrence Ferlinghetti Memorial not need to be long enough to read, to listen, to understand and to enjoy as much of his work as possible?
Thank you for your interest in and support of Syndic Literary Journal.
LeRoy Chatfield
Publisher, Syndic Literary Journal
(syndicjournal.us)