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]"
>
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