Pity the Nation

Pity the nation whose people are sheep,

and whose shepherds mislead them,

Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced,

and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.

Pity the nation that raises not its voice,

except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero

and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.

Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own

and no other culture but its own.

Pity the nation whose breath is money

and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.

Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode

and their freedoms to be washed away.

My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.

Ferlinghetti is the author of more than thirty books of poetry, including Time of Useful Consciousness (New Directions, 2012); Poetry as Insurgent Art (New Directions, 2007); Americus, Book I (New Directions, 2004); San Francisco Poems (City Lights Books, 2002); How to Paint Sunlight (New Directions, 2001); A Far Rockaway of the Heart (New Directions, 1997); These Are My Rivers: New & Selected Poems, 1955-1993 (New Directions, 1993); Over All the Obscene Boundaries: European Poems & Transitions (New Directions, 1984); Who Are We Now? (New Directions, 1976); The Secret Meaning of Things (New Directions, 1969); and A Coney Island of the Mind (New Directions, 1958). He has translated the work of a number of poets including Nicanor Parra, Jacques Prevert, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. Ferlinghetti is also the author of more than eight plays and of the novels Love in the Days of Rage(Overlook, 1988) and Her (New Directions, 1966).

In 1994, San Francisco renamed a street in his honor. He was also named the first poet laureate of San Francisco in 1998. His other awards and honors include the lifetime achievement award from the National Book Critics Circle in 2000, the Frost Medal in 2003, and the Literarian Award in 2005, presented for “outstanding service to the American literary community.”

Currently, Ferlinghetti writes a weekly column for the San Francisco Chronicle. He also continues to operate the City Lights bookstore, and he travels frequently to participate in literary conferences and poetry readings.