I taught at a woman's prison in New York a couple of years ago.
And I would bring in a lot of poems from famous poets.
And the women in the group were--
they had no interest in the famous poets.
They wanted my poetry.
So finally, I brought in some of my own poems.
And this poem that I read to them they really took to.
It's not a poem I would normally read but it became
a hit in the prison, you know.
I wish that would to happen outside of the prison,
you know what I mean?
[LAUGHTER]
And it was being passed around and after you hear the poem
you'll either think, well, why was it a hit in the prison
or you'll understand exactly why.
"Chewing on the Bone".
I cannot be no longer.
I have come out against being.
Being was a test and I am being asked to test again,
to test all day long.
All questions related to my being
I am now referring to the being that never came to be.
Let that being feel this being.
Let that being face the hours.
Let that being flag its beingness
among the parade of beings.
I am done.
All evidence is in the drawers.
All drawers are in the trees.
All trees are in the sea that is no longer.
All queries should herein be --herein be addressed
to the superior being.
I am in for the night and the day.
The mind is on strike until further notice.
The imagination is not accepting applications.
The picket line will not be crossed.
If it is crossed, so be it.
The only work is idle work.
Pacing, scribbling, mumbling, remembering, and forgetting.
If you want to take it let it be your 9:00 to 5:00,
your 8:00 to 6:00.
Go be and be some more.
Be until you are full of being.
Maximum being, idleness the capacity,
the top in your class, the traveling spokesman.
The master teacher.
The thought leader of the thinking masses
or the non-thinking hordes.
You the Supreme being of beingness so high up the ladder
you will never be touched.
Cannot be touched.
The same way you cross the line and never
look back to touch the being that touched you.