Constantly Risking Absurdity by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Constantly Risking Absurdity by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Constantly risking absurdity

and death

whenever he performs

above the heads

of his audience

the poet like an acrobat

climbs on rime

to a high wire of his own making

and balancing on eyebeams

above a sea of faces

paces his way

to the other side of the day

performing entrachats

and sleight-of-foot tricks

and other high theatrics

and all without mistaking

any thing

for what it may not be

For he's the super realist

who must perforce perceive

taut truth

before the taking of each stance or step

in his supposed advance

toward that still higher perch

where Beauty stands and waits

with gravity

to start her death-defying leap

And he

a little charleychaplin man

who may or may not catch

her fair eternal form

spreadeagled in the empty air

of existence 

Constantly Risking Absurdity by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Constantly Risking Absurdity, explains how lonely the search for beauty can be for the poet by showing the lonely acrobat performing high above on the wire. It starts by taking the reader up onto the high wire by having to climb on "rime". Then it shows the reader the faces of the audience waiting for him to use "sleight-of-foot tricks" and "high theatrics" to entertain them.