Carl Rakosi, 100; was influential poet

LOS ANGELES -- Carl Rakosi, the prolific poet whose nonrhyming narratives were precise, perceptive, and pithy commentaries on life as he witnessed it, died at 100. Mr. Rakosi, cited as a "major American poet" by the National Poetry Foundation, died June 24 of unspecified causes of aging in his San Francisco home.

His work influenced younger generations of poets, including the Beats. Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti called Mr. Rakosi "one of the poets that the Beat Generation poets read and admired for his unadorned presentation of objective reality."

He was especially known for his down-to-earth "Americana" series of poems and another called "Country Epitaphs," published in 1999.