An interesting poem by Maurice Leiter – of life examined and punches pulled.
To have lived this long in admiration of children authors of the book of
laughter cartographers of the map of solutions whose commentary can
always be trusted
To have lived this long in fealty to women without understanding them yet
knowing their value as they melt or harden with the changing seasons
To have lived this long scowling at the genuflectors the cringers the
clingers the gossips especially the barren patriots
To have lived this long among these barbarians even perhaps to have
supported them by inaction to have tutted and tsked but not to have
risked my body …..
More here.
Accidental Blogger 
6 responses to ““To Have Lived This Long””
Do you know who this mysterious Maurice Leiter is and how he is related to Brian Leiter? Google doesn’t help much, just a few links to some criticisms and correspondence between Brian Leiter and the poetry’s detractors, political contributions to a lawyers PAC that identify Maurice as an attorney.
I think I like his other poems at the Leiter blog better than this one. The lack of punctuation really bothers me. Maybe it was done for a reason, but this tiny brain is unable to figure it out.
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Maurice Leiter is Brian Leiter’s father. From the little that I know from Professor Leiter, he is / was not a “professional” poet – poetry is a long time hobby. That is probably why he doesn’t show up on a “google” search. Also, I don’t think the attorney who does show up, is this Maurice Leiter. Wrong age.
Believe me, my brain too is rather tiny when it comes to poetry appreciation. The reason this poem struck a chord is that it echoes the “comfortable middle class” lament that many of us feel in our hearts occasionally. A feeling that rankles when we try to live by the proddings of our conscience but end up living according to our comfort level – unwilling to “risk our bodies.”
As for lack of punctuations, that can be confounding. For some reason this one was not. I knew where the commas and the periods must appear. I am also used to reading not too abstruse poems about existential angst (with or without punctuations) that refer plainly to challenges I recognize. My husband used to dabble in such poetry when we were young, brave and courting. Amazingly enough, I still have in my possession a crumbling file with a stack of yellowing type written papers adorned by many such verses. If my husband would give me permission (he won’t), I could utilize some of that youthful barrage as Friday posts here – along the same lines as the “Cat Quotes.”
Here is an example (published without permission):
I kind of like it still, even after more than three and a half decades. But surely we (including Dean) will agree that it is a good thing he kept his “day job” as a scientist. :-)
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The missing commas
and periods
would not have been
as annoying
had they been
separated by
line returns as in
Sudhir’s poem.
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How! funny, that; the–most()salient…feature, of, Mr. Leiter’s: poem-is-its-absence-of-punctuation”
On a first reading of Ruchira’s husband’s pirated (i.e., by Ruchira) work, I was most struck by its absence of concrete images. The closing “complicated patterns” almost achieves concreteness, yet it is ultimately abstract. Subsequently, I notice the significant pronouns: you, your, we. They alone accomplish a great deal, particularly at the advent of the second sentence with its imperative, which introduces a tone that suggests to me that “you” is really “I,” the author of the poem, lamenting his complicated patterns and dense surroundings, and worried about an oppressive, preoccupied “we” who are really “they.”
And the title, a lovely ambiguity. A scientist’s calculation—objective, precise, rigorous—transforms into what the OED describes as “shrewd[] or selfish[] reckon[ing of] the chances of gain or advantage.” The subject must calculate the value of his virtues to sell them well. He sells himself (short?).
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Dean:
The lack of punctuation in Mr. Leiter’s poem was a salient feature for Sujatha, not me. I liked the message of informed resignation.
As for my husband’s poem, you read it correctly – the inversion of the pronouns.
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I like Dean’s interpretation of Sudhir’s words. Given what you have mentioned, it fits in perfectly with what were Sudhir’s feelings about the scientific establishment in India.
This tiny brain of mine has shrunk further after a 3 hour dose of Rabindra Sangeet (from the dance-drama Raja) over the weekend. I need respite from ‘flowers, fragrance, moonlight and breeze’ now!
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