LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI IS STILL WAITING: On Poets & Laureates, 1999

Ferlinghetti, around the time of this interview

In Britain, the chase for the Poet Laureate’s job resembles a literary Grand National. Bookies quote odds. Possibilities range from Pam Ayers to Benjamin Zepheniah, virtually everyone except Jacques Santer. Writers write themselves out of consideration, or audition with royal subject matter to try to write themselves in. Vitriol follows verse as literary gossip columns study…