Stop Writing Literature, You Garrulous Indian
for Eric Mottram (1924 - 1995)*
a life of toil for the man in the centre
a hub in the peripheral tireless wheel
where he go then where he go this working man
he go on waking people working at waking man
no words cling now no words meant in blame
the tongue he lash the words they now tame
no shock of blast open laughter rock the hall
everyman there say there sure were a man
a man no fear cowed in communion to other
made for no gods made for no demons either
all men he know best when he see just once
no second thought resurrect the man if bad
so go tell the magi no trek in sight in sky
here a man be born here he so sure die
other no like see one so bright stand up high
other no like feel like sky fall low into ocean
what make ‘m i say with feeling so just
is sure he different he force hisself work
work work work work an’ again work
he work nite an’ nite so 50-hour in day
where he go then where he go this working man
he go on waking people working at waking man
where you go from word born here now
turn and twist all whoring the alphabet
‘don’t write anything you can get published’
so publish only what you can’t call your own
writing like reading’s a public coital act
so showing your work is exhibitionism
‘why don’t you send your stuff around
keeping it to yourself’s sheer masturbation’
reading-watching-listening’s just voyeurism
so sending wares around is prostitutionism
where he go then where he go this working man
he go on waking people working at waking man
he it was in minesweeper capture aurora borealis
message from extrasensory enter into he word
in Bengal waters alone he hear No-man cry
only in deepdown psyche water drip drip dry
then on land he no see reason to the fight
so he let he wrists spill he guts to the fill
then he take the world on all by he torn self
he spare no skin in dug-Malayan-jungle-out
what he do what he think he do he no tell
everybody meet man an’ no see albatross hang
he no tell story like ol’ mariner in dream
he go wake people from dumb dead trance
many many people high up no like this act
some call him stuckup other just ‘im damn
is all he do then what kind of working this
is big work man ‘cause most body dead sleep
where he go then where he go this working man
he go on waking people working at waking man
* The late Eric N. W. Mottram, made Chair Professor of English and American Literature at King's College, University of London, in 1983, was appointed Lecturer
in American Literature - the first such appointment - in the University of London. By then he had already taught English literature in Zurich, Singapore, and Groningen. He obtained a Double First in English Tripos at Cambridge University after serving out the Second World War (in the North Sea and the Bay of Bengal) on a mine-sweeper. He edited 22 issues of the Poetry Review in the seventies, the organ of the Poetry Society in England. He published some 35 books of poems and some fifteen books of criticism and was the recepient of the American Learned Society's Award for 1965. He also taught at Northwestern University and in New York University at Buffalo. In 1994-1995, he was recommended for the Nobel Prize in Literature, but he passed away on January 16, 1995 while a E-meritus Professor at London University.
© T. Wignesan 13-15 October 1995. Pub. in "Radical Poetics (Inventory of Possibilities)", London, 1997.
Copyright © T Wignesan | Year Posted 2012
Post Comments
Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.
Please
Login
to post a comment