[Newspoetry] Random Walks in Gardens Fair and Green

[Donald L Emerick]

I call to your attention the following article "
Creating a Stir Wherever She Goes
February 9, 2002
By DINITIA SMITH at
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/09/arts/09SPIV.html?ex=1014327533&ei=1&en=28e
d66c393314f94
" wherein you will find extolled
(ex-told ax-told twice-told tale)
one or two or more Gayatri Spivak[i].

It is never quite clear how many
People have the same name
And live in the same place,
Or inhabit some body of thought.
Indeed, academia is not a nut farm,
MacAdemia is not an Apple form
A finishing school of fine arts,
Manors of etiquetted society
Instructing educated computers.

Academics reverse exorcism.
It is better to be possessed
By a thousand bad ideas
Than to have no idea at all.
I'd in-cite this to prove its truth.

It is far better to worship
A thousand Gods
Than to worship none at all.
For Admission to AfterLife School
Is by a Committee Decision:
Many apply but few are chosen.
Make friends with the Gods,
And Some may help you out,
Or, in their general indifference,
Not be so disposed to spite you.

It is necessary to have
A thousand ideas, or more,
Because critical mass --
A reverse mass,
A black mass --
Ignition-lift-off,
Radiation of a million suns --
The power to split
The Adam or the Eve --
The personalities in you --
Will not otherwise occur.

Oh, a thousand tongues sing
Some Great Redeemers joys.
Tongue is language you speak,
Giving tongue to thought
Is a French Kiss -- from Derrida.
But I have kissed a lot of fish
And felt a thousand smackerels
In the face, in ears and eyes, on lips.

A thousand tons would be megaton
And megation, megatons shared,
A last word falling on parched lips.
For all that it is called public,
For all say that it is said that
Language must be public or perish,
Yet I say privacy roots thought --
And any root could be routed
In so many cobweb-places.

When it is your turn to speak,
You will speak your own tongue
Or swallow it and go down, unsung,
Singing words of alien invaders.

Thanks for Listening.
Donald L Emerick