{"id":798,"date":"2004-09-18T09:43:17","date_gmt":"2004-09-18T16:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2004\/09\/catching_up_with_leon\/"},"modified":"2004-09-18T09:43:17","modified_gmt":"2004-09-18T16:43:17","slug":"catching_up_with_leon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2004\/09\/catching_up_with_leon.html","title":{"rendered":"CATCHING UP WITH LEON"},"content":{"rendered":"

New verse has arrived about soon-to-be Prisoner of the Year: <\/P>
\n

MARTYR MARTHA<\/B>

Martha Stewart: “There are many, many good
\npeople who have gone to prison. Look at Nelson Mandela.”<\/I>

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

— Leon Freilich<\/B><\/P>
\n

It has also not escaped our notice that The New York Times keeps copping our stuff<\/FONT><\/B><\/A>. This time they
\ncopped Straight Up’s poet laureate<\/FONT><\/B><\/A>,
\nalthough, it must be said, not without his collusion.<\/P>
\n

Here’s what happened: Earlier this week reporter Michael Luo wrote a story about etiquette
\non the New York subway, <\/FONT>“Excuse Me. May I Have Your Seat?'”<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> As Luo put it, the
\nstory explored — take a deep breath — “the web of unwritten rules that govern behavior
\nunderground, including the universally understood and seldom challenged first-come-first-served
\nequity of subway seating.” <\/P>
\n

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

To the Editor:<\/P>
\n

Tension filled the humid air,
With subway riders looking beat,
As fearless reporters
\ntook the dare:
“Brother, can you spare a seat?”<\/P>
\n

— Leon Freilich<\/STRONG>
Brooklyn, Sept. 14, 2004<\/P>
\n

I think it’s wonderful that the Letters to the Editor editor of the Times recognizes the value of
\nLeon’s sublime poetry. But I hope, with all due respect, Leon doesn’t go getting himself a
\nswelled head.<\/P>
\n

Postscript:<\/STRONG> In the spirit of Beckett and others on Joyce (“Our Exagmination Round His Factification
\nfor Incamination of Work in Progress”<\/FONT><\/STRONG><\/A>), the poet responds:<\/P>
\n

Pinhead one day,
Swelled head the next;
Only a saint
Would not be
\nvexed.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New verse has arrived about soon-to-be Prisoner of the Year: MARTYR MARTHAMartha 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’sWhere the good people are.— Leon Freilich It has also not escaped our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-cS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}