Amiri Baraka(LEROI JONES) (b. 1934)
In Memory of Radio
Who has ever stopped to think of the divinity of Lamont Cranston1
(Only Jack Kerouac, 2 that I know of: & me.
The rest of you probably had on WCBS and Kate Smith,
Or something equally unattractive.)
What can I say
It is better to have loved and lost
Than to put linoleum in your living rooms3
Am I a sage or something
Mandrake's hypnotic gesture of the week
(Remember, I do not have the healing powers of Oral Roberts . . .
I cannot, like F. J. Sheen, tell you how to get saved &• rich!
I cannot even order you to gaschamber satori4 like Hitler or Goody
Knight
& Love is an evil word.
Turn it backwards / see, what I mean
An evol word. & besides
Who understands it
I certainly wouldn't like to go out on that kind of limb.
Saturday mornings we listened to Red Lantern & his undersea folk.
At 11, Let's Pretend I & we did / & I, the poet, still do, Thank God!
What was it he used to say (after the transformation, when he was
safe
& invisible & the unbelievers couldn't throw stones) "Heh, heh, heh,
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men The Shadow knows.
O, yes he does
O, yes he does
An evil word it is,
This Love.