To Yell THEATER THEATER in a Crowded Fire

Doubt not, O poet,
O Physicist
O Chemist
O Biologist
O Environmentalist
O Sociologist
O Economist
O Historian
O Humanist & Variety of
Religious Experientialist
O Psyche-ologist
O Philosophist
O Educational-ist
O Administration-alist
but persist.
Say "Tis in me, and shall out."
Stand there, baulked and dumb,
stuttering and stammering, hissed
and hooted, stand and strive, until,
at last, rage draw out of thee that
dream-power which every night
shows thee is thine own; a power
transcending all limit and privacy,
and by virtue of which a myn is the
conductor of the whole river of
electricity.”

(from Emerson’s “The Poet” somewhat
reformatted to fit my screed.)

Betty Haines: Quaker lady--gray hair
in a tight bun, a chest big enough for
tea service & when she stood to
address the PTA she would tear-up
uncontrollably.

Betty taught 6^th grade at Buckingham
Friends School & was a tutelary spirit,
duende during my initiation into hired
education where I raised 7^thgraders &
schooled them & the 8^th grade in grammar,
literature, social studies, religion, soccer,
chess, banjo & guitar & bossed the work
program activities once a week.

Had a fireplace in my classroom, second
floor of an ancient fieldstone dwelling next
to the Meeting House between New Hope
and Doylestown in Bucks County, Pa.

I couldn't keep it going, damnit, until she
explained with tongs and poker:

Thee has to burn 2 logs
against each other, Samuel.
One can’t stay on fire all by itself.

Betty'd spank & hug alternatively as needed
and would be charged with abuse if she were
alive now no question how we’ve advanced..

Got to have some against-ness to build
& sustain a fire: Aunty Thesis to nurture
flame & retain the bodily heat.

“As for me, I can explain nothing,”
Garcia Lorca said, “but stammer with
the fire that burns inside me, and the
life that has been bestowed on me.”