Today, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, fine poet, fearless publisher of Alan Ginsburg’s Beat classic, “Howl,” and co-founder of San Francisco’s famed City Lights Bookstore turns 100 years old. Happy Birthday!!

I took this image (in the point-and-shoot and film camera days) from the doorway of City Lights on a pilgrimage and pleasure tour Tim and I made there in 1997. Today, I am just delighted to have read this poem by Ferlinghetti on Poem-A-Day, “The Changing Light,” written when he was eighty years old. I also enjoyed the voice clip of him reading this poem of love of place–a place he and others turned into a mecca of inclusivity and poetry.

I hope your day combines whimsy and lasting value in your own particular way–even if grey skies temporarily flatten you (as they often do me.)