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Apologies for Cross-Posting

This via Ed Baker from Henry Ferrini:

>        
>        "Vincent Ferrini died December 24th. His death was the result of
>        a recent heart attack and bout with pneumonia. He resided at Den
>        Mar Nursing home in Rockport since last May after returning from
>        his latest reading at Beyond Baroque Literary Art Center in Los
>        Angeles. He was 94 years old. For anyone who knew Mr. Ferrini
>        his passion and engagement for the art of living will always be
>        remembered.
>        
>        If the poet were writing this obit he would say he did not die
>        but rather merged into the pleroma. The pleroma was a word on
>        his mind during the last few years. In Greek it means,
>        "fullness.” The early Christian Gnostics saw it as the dwelling
>        place of spirit and to scores of people in his community Vincent
>        was the spirit & conscience of Gloucester.
>        
>        Venanzio Ugo Ferrini was born in Saugus, Massachusetts on June
>        24, 1913 to John and Rena Ferrini. His parents emigrated
>        separately from Abruzzi, Italy to work in the shoe factories of
>        Lynn. Vincent’s own experience in the shoe factories and during
>        the Great Depression instilled a great sensitivity for the life
>        of the working poor.
>        
>        In high school he found that books contained the keys to
>        discovery and it was then that he resolved to become a writer.
>        Ignoring his father’s admonition that a son of a shoe worker
>        could never become a poet, he graduated from Lynn Classical and
>        not having the money for college, pursued his education in the
>        Lynn Public Library spending each day reading, studying, looking
>        for answers to illuminate why humanity settled for poverty and
>        war. When the Great Depression hit, the young bard worked as a
>        teacher in the WPA as he worked his first volume of verse about
>        the people of Lynn. In 1940 at the age of twenty-seven he
>        published “No Smoke.”
>        
>        A simple poem by the poet tells a great deal about the man.
>        
>        Folk Song.
>        
>        I pass
>        by day
>        and by night
>        no one has
>        seen me
>        
>        if you ever
>        want to find
>        me and know me
>        leave behind
>        yourself
>        and enter
>        the caves
>        of other
>        people.
>        
>        there you
>        will find
>        me
>        who is
>        yourself.
>        
>        Mr. Ferrini married Margaret Duffy a schoolteacher in 1942. The
>        couple had three children Sheila, Owen and Deirdre. In 1948 his
>        young family left Lynn for Gloucester. Working at the GE by day,
>        he soon gave up the security of a weekly paycheck to make a
>        living as a frame maker. As he said in his 1975 autobiography,
>        Hermit of the Clouds, being an independent craftsperson provided
>        “the freedom to write when the poem is hot within.”
>        
>        Mr. Ferrini’s move to Gloucester marked a shift in his poetry
>        from the political and social to the personal and cosmic.
>        Gloucester became a dream place that he made his place. Here his
>        poetry and his life would find no separation.
>        
>        In the late 40’s after reading a Ferrini poem in a small
>        magazine the poet Charles Olson paid the poet a fan call. Olson
>        first addressed the Maximus Poems as letters to Mr. Ferrini and
>        even after an excoriating attack; the two men remained lifelong
>        friends.
>        
>        In the sixties after the death of his daughter Deirdre from
>        leukemia, Ferrini’s marriage ended. He later married the artist
>        Mary Shore. When his second marriage ended in divorce he moved
>        back to his frame shop at 126 East Main Street. The little shop
>        became a nexus for many artists and writers who came to
>        Gloucester.
>        
>        Vincent’s view of the individual, the family, the community and
>        the nation working together for the common good compelled him to
>        write not only to the Gloucester paper but the Globe, the New
>        York Times and the Nation. At city hall he voiced his concerns
>        at hundreds of council meetings. His focus was always the
>        preservation of his city from the wildfire greed that will
>        destroy the spirit and originality of his city.
>        
>        Overcoming all odds Mr. Ferrini chose life as a poet. He was an
>        academic outsider who lived with no financial remuneration from
>        his labor. His vigor, unbound creativity and compassion kept him
>        publishing for over 67 years producing 31 volumes of poetry,
>        four volumes of plays and an autobiography. He is the subject of
>        his nephew Henry Ferrini’s film, “Poem in Action.”
>        
>        Mr. Ferrini leaves his daughter Shelia Ferrini of Boston, his
>        son Owen Ferrini from Gloucester, two grandchildren, Ben and
>        Cara Ferrini and dozens of extended family and friends whom he
>        will continue to inspire. His younger siblings Yolanda, Dante
>        and Lindo predeceased him.
>        
>        A celebration of Vincent Ferrini’s life will be held at a
>        forthcoming date. His upcoming book of poetry “Invisible Skin”
>        is slated for release in the spring of 2008. Literary requests
>        can be sent to [log in to unmask]"
>