• Home
  • About
    • Straight Up
    • Jan Herman
    • Contact
  • AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal

Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

CATCHING UP WITH LEON

September 18, 2004 by cmackie

New verse has arrived about soon-to-be Prisoner of the Year:


MARTYR MARTHA

Martha Stewart: “There are many, many good
people who have gone to prison. Look at Nelson Mandela.”


Send me to jail,
Martha pleads,
Even though I’m a star;
Nothing I did was wrong — that’s
Where
the good people are.

— Leon Freilich


It has also not escaped our notice that The New York Times keeps copping our stuff. This time they
copped Straight Up’s poet laureate,
although, it must be said, not without his collusion.


Here’s what happened: Earlier this week reporter Michael Luo wrote a story about etiquette
on the New York subway, “Excuse Me. May I Have Your Seat?'” As Luo put it, the
story explored — take a deep breath — “the web of unwritten rules that govern behavior
underground, including the universally understood and seldom challenged first-come-first-served
equity of subway seating.”


This fascinating tale of guilt and dread and a thousand other human emotions drew letters to
the editor from interested subway riders, not surprisingly, and from one weird guy who hails from
Illinois. They were published under the headline “Is Chivalry Dead? Or Is It Underground? (6 Letters)” One
of the letters went like this:


To the Editor:


Tension filled the humid air,
With subway riders looking beat,
As fearless reporters
took the dare:
“Brother, can you spare a seat?”


— Leon Freilich
Brooklyn, Sept. 14, 2004


I think it’s wonderful that the Letters to the Editor editor of the Times recognizes the value of
Leon’s sublime poetry. But I hope, with all due respect, Leon doesn’t go getting himself a
swelled head.


Postscript: In the spirit of Beckett and others on Joyce (“Our Exagmination Round His Factification
for Incamination of Work in Progress”
), the poet responds:


Pinhead one day,
Swelled head the next;
Only a saint
Would not be
vexed.

Share on email
Email
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on reddit
Reddit

Filed Under: main

Jan Herman

When not listening to Bach or Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdes, or dancing to salsa, I like to play jazz piano -- but only in the privacy of my own mind.
Another strange fact... Read More…

About

My Books

Several books of poems have been published in recent years by Moloko Print, Statdlichter Presse, Phantom Outlaw Editions, and Cold Turkey … [Read More...]

Straight Up

The agenda is just what it says: news of arts, media & culture delivered with attitude. Or as Rock Hudson once said in a movie: "Man is the only … [Read More...]

Contact me

We're cutting down on spam. Please fill in this form. … [Read More...]

Archives

Blogroll

Abstract City
AC Institute
ACKER AWARDS New York
All Things Allen Ginsberg
Antiwar.com
arkivmusic.com
Artbook&
Arts & Letters Daily

Befunky
Bellaart
Blogcritics
Booknotes
Bright Lights Film Journal

C-SPAN
Noam Chomsky
Consortium News
Cost of War
Council on Foreign Relations
Crooks and Liars
Cultural Daily

The Daily Howler
Dark Roasted Blend
DCReport
Deep L
Democracy Now!

Tim Ellis: Comedy
Eschaton

Film Threat
Robert Fisk
Flixnosh (David Elliott’s movie menu)
Fluxlist Europe

Good Reads
The Guardian
GUERNICA: A Magazine of Art & Politics

Herman (Literary) Archive, Northwestern Univ. Library
The Huffington Post

Inter Press Service News Agency
The Intercept
Internet Archive (WayBackMachine)
Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
Doug Ireland
IT: International Times, The Magazine of Resistance

Jacketmagazine
Clive James

Kanopy (stream free movies, via participating library or university)
Henry Kisor
Paul Krugman

Lannan Foundation
Los Angeles Times

Metacritic
Mimeo Mimeo
Moloko Print
Movie Geeks United (MGU)
MGU: The Kubrick Series

National Security Archive
The New York Times
NO!art

Osborne & Conant
The Overgrown Path

Poets House
Political Irony
Poynter

Quanta Magazine

Rain Taxi
The Raw Story
RealityStudio.org
Bill Reed
Rhizome
Rwanda Project

Salon
Senses of Cinema
Seven Stories Press
Slate
Stadtlichter Presse
Studs Terkel
The Synergic Theater

Talking Points Memo (TPM)
TalkLeft
The 3rd Page
Third Mind Books
Times Square Cam
The Tin Man
t r u t h o u t

Ubu Web

Vox

The Wall Street Journal
Wikigate
Wikipedia
The Washington Post
The Wayback Machine (Internet Archive)
World Catalogue
World Newspapers, Magazines & News Sites

The XD Agency

Share on email
Email
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on reddit
Reddit
This blog published under a Creative Commons license

an ArtsJournal blog

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in