"I don't see him."

A Q&A by Lawrence Ferlinghetti following a poetry reading in 1960:

Question by a serious student before a huge crowd at University of Vermont conference: "Sir, how you stand on fornication?"

Answer: "As for fornication, I very seldom stand; I lie down."

Second question: "Do you really think Christ is dead?"

Answer: "The way the world acts today, you would think so. He's not here tonight, is he? I don't see him."

Voice from the back of the auditorium: "Here I am."

Excerpted from Writing Across the Landscape, © 2015