LETTER TO THE ACADEMY

The gentlemen who have got to be classics and are now old
with beards (or dead and in their graves) will
kindly come forward and speak upon the subject
Of the Revolution. I mean the gentlemen who wrote lovely
books about the defeat of the flesh and the
triumph of the spirit that sold in the hundreds
of thousands and are studied in the high schools
and read by the best people will kindly come
forward and

Speak about the Revolution---where the flesh triumphs
(as well as the spirit) and the hungry belly
eats, and there are no best people, and the
poor are mighty and no longer poor, and the
young by the hundreds of thousands are freed
from hunger to grow and study and love and
propagate bodies and souls unchained without
My Lord saying a commoner shall never marry
my daughter or the Rabbi crying cursed be the
mating of Jews and Gentiles or Kipling writing
never the twain shall meet---

For the twain have met. But please---all you gentlemen
with beards who are so wise and old and who
write better than we do and whose souls have

Letter to the Academy

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triumphed (in spite of hungers and wars and the evils about
you) and whose books have soared in calmness and beauty
aloof from the struggle to the library shelves and the
desks of students and *who* are now classics--come
forward and speak

Upon the subject of the Revolution.

We want to know what in the hell you'd say?

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