Clever on the One Hand

Clever on the One Hand

If all good people were clever,
and all clever people were good,
The world would be nicer than
ever we thought that it possibly
could.

But somehow ‘tis seldom or
never, that the two hit it off
as they should; for the good
are so harsh to the clever;
the clever so rude to the good.

Elizabeth Wordsworth

3 Faces of ME



Incommensurate

You might think: NOT.
You might think commensurate!
You might think on the face of it:
these 2 would just get along, so
much alike, so much in common;
but each sees the Other in terms
of myself; how could it be
other wise?

Walk in another’s boots, shoes,
moccasins, sandals? Manners of
speech. Easy to say. One majors
in knowing, the Other: feeling.
(Can you tell which is which?)
Pathetic. Pathologic.

Me?
Malcontent in the muddle;
Picture-taker, camera-I &
third person plural standing
there: a guest, a ghost, a
yin-yanger as it were:
characterizing neither one
nor the other but both & more;
sustaining the gap, sparking
relays, ratios, rationale &
rationalizations.

&&&&&&&&&&&

Some of my best students are
cutters, compulsive joggers,
hand-washers, binge & purgers
anxious and acquainted with
panic, hyper attention deficient
restless leg jigglers, smokers,
tokers, midnight jokers—
techno-pharmaceutically
literate & savvy beyond
their ears. .

We study transcendentalists
and romantics together looking
for correspondence with our
sociological studies, psycho-
logic & gender inquiries, the
Russian novels of the 19^th century,
environmental sustainability,
beginner banjo, phenomenalism
& global studies: looking for
connections, hook-ups, relevance
& integrity to spark the gap
between what we feel and what
we know, what’s actually
happening and the ways we talk
about it, what counts and what
Counts, what’s clever & useful
and what’s merely good.




From The Meaning of Pictures
Shelby Lee Adams' Appalachia