Vincent Ferrini, at 94; was Gloucester's 'poet laureate'

"I was thrust out of my mother's womb with a pencil in my left hand," Vincent Ferrini wrote.

Walking along the streets and beaches of his beloved Gloucester, a fedora over his long, curly, white hair, Vincent Ferrini looked very much the poet that he was.

In the North Shore community of artists and fishermen, "people would stop and ask who he was," said Terry Kennedy, who is editing Mr. Ferrini's latest work, "Invisible Skin," for release in the spring by her Tiger Moon publishing company.

Mr. Ferrini, who was known as the poet laureate of Gloucester, died Dec. 24 at Den-Mar Nursing Home in Rockport, where he had lived since last May. His daughter, Sheila of Chelsea, said the cause of death was a heart attack and pneumonia. He was 94.

"We have many poets, but Vinnie was THE poet," said former Gloucester mayor John Bell, a longtime friend.

Gloucester librarian Carol Gray said, "Vincent shared his generous spirit, the twinkle in his eyes, and the smile on his face with everyone."

For the subjects of more than 30 books of poetry, Mr. Ferrini cast his net wide, exploring the lives of ordinary people. "His aesthetic goal was the integration of art and life," wrote George F. Butterick, the late editor and literary scholar.

After his critically acclaimed "Selected Poems" in 1976, a review in Library Journal described Mr. Ferrini as "a visionary celebrant of the mystic sea and stars, albeit one who hasn't lost his keen perception of the world's economic pain."

Vinanzio Ugo Ferrini was born in Saugus, one of four children of indigent Italian immigrants John and Rena (DeCarlo) Ferrini, and raised in Lynn. His father told Vinanzio that a career of a poet was not for the son of a shoe worker. That didn't discourage him.

Mr. Ferrini was born to write verse "from day one," said his nephew Henry of Gloucester, a documentary filmmaker who made a film of his uncle that aired on public television. "I was thrust out of my mother's womb with a pencil in my left hand," Mr. Ferrini wrote in his 1988 autobiography, "Hermit of the Clouds."

He would start writing poetry as soon as he was old enough to hold that pencil and, largely self-educated, would continue writing until just weeks before his death.

Growing up, Mr. Ferrini would go to the public library every day and called it his "university." He graduated from Lynn Classical High School at the height of the Great Depression. For about 10 years he worked at the General Electric plant in Lynn. He continued to read and to write poetry.

Mr. Ferrini chronicled his experiences during the Depression, like standing in bread lines. In "No Smoke," his first book of poetry in 1941, he wrote about the plight of the workers in the shoe factories of Lynn. The lives of downtrodden workers so upset him, he joined the Communist party, his nephew said.

"Vincent was like a raw nerve, a very sensitive person who cared what was happening to the environment, the community, and the planet," he said.

He moved to Gloucester in 1949, and his poetry entered a new phase, said Kenneth Warren, director of the public library in Lakewood, Ohio, who edited one of Mr. Ferrini's books.

"He began as a proletarian poet," Warren said in a phone interview. "Then, when he moved to Gloucester, he moved on to more mystical, introspective poetry. He was a great feeler, always scanning the world for what was happening. If he were against something, he had an engaged political voice."

His poetry spoke strongly of his social conscience as he compassionately wrote about lives of the downtrodden, the poor, the oppressed, battered women, or the hard lives of Gloucester fishermen.

At first, Kennedy said, his social-issue poetry "was dismissed by the literary establishment. Now, everyone is teaching him in college."

She said Mr. Ferrini had been excited about the message of his upcoming book of poetry, "Invisible Skin": that there are no boundaries among people.

"The color and age of our skin are undetectable," she said, describing his message. "We are all one. Vince was always concerned about the soul of the person," she said, not "about the skin, the age, or religion."

Until eight months ago, Mr. Ferrini had lived independently in quarters attached to his frame shop in Gloucester, where he made frames for the works of local artists. He lived in moderation, and with what little money he had, he would treat friends to lunch.

His marriages to teacher Margaret Duffy and artist Mary Shore ended in divorce.

"Vince was a man in love with life," said Sarah Jensen, a Boston poet. His many readings of his new poetry at colleges, bookstores, and other venues were made even more memorable by his passion in delivering them, she said.

"He usually wore his black fedora and an ascot, and his voice would rise and fall to make a point," she said. "If he read about war, he might show disgust about the human obsession with war."

His daughter, Sheila, said he taught his children "to be observant and to look at something more than once."

Among his countless poems, his daughter believes "The Gold," written around 1976, best summed up his view of life. Jensen interprets it as "how we inspire each other by our own fire and energy."

Thesuddenness flowers have

startle the air

with their fire and ether

as we do with what is ours

because we are

the gardeners of each other.

In addition to his daughter, Mr. Ferrini leaves a son, Owen, of Gloucester; and two grandchildren.

A celebration of his life is planned.