Commentary: Witty and profound, Ferlinghetti's words live on Robert Seltzer, For the Express-News March 5, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail Lawrence Ferlinghetti was everything a poet should be — witty and quirky and profound. And, oh yes, durable. The cause was interstitial lung disease, his son told the Associated Press. “Lawrence probably started hundreds of thousands of people reading his poetry,” poet and essayist Michael McClure told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2003. “They read his poetry first and then they went on to read more poetry.” To appreciate Ferlinghetti, we must appreciate the era from which he sprang. He was part of the Beat Generation, among the greatest outpourings of creativity in American literature. The writers were hip and irreverent, their prose and poetry approximating the freewheeling rhythms of jazz, a style that was casual but disciplined.