it was an invention of the late great
great joel oppenheimer
who invented a lot of things
but let other guys take credit for them
cause he didn’t wanna get involved
in office work the lazy bum
he just wanted to sit in the lions head
(or the cedars or dillons or mcsorleys)
and invent stuff and tell stories
let other guys write it up
get the funding and the credit
it’s why he got anne
to take over
the po proj
bone lazy except
for talking writing
drinking learning
always leanring
eventually
husbanding fathering too
took him a few tries
to get that right
in spite
of all the help he got
but talking and inventing
he couldn’t be beat
as long as cd to it
without disturbance to
his regular rounds
coffe shop
newsstand
bookstore
bar
he was one fo the inventors of the Poetry Project of course
and his talk talk talk begat that famous new journalism
and westbeth
and the new york state foundation for the arts
great institutions grew from his endless talk
memos meetings budgets reports
write ups in the times big bucks
left for other guys to handle (the shmucks)
he was a master namer too
named max’s Kansas city didn’t he
named me my e-name
one day walking thru Sheridan square
on our way to breakfast
1969 early spring before the stonewall riots
it was the height of guru craze fad guru flooze
we were surrounded
guru craze posters everywhere
Sheridan square plastered
ras this baba that baba neem
majaya this (born joyce greenbaum)
so joel
not breaking stride
not missing a fuckin beat
sez sam
why don’t you go into the guru business?
me sez wha?
he sez
you have the perfect name for it
just turn it backwards
mas smarba
and that’s how I got my email name
on the street
mas dot smarba @ gmail dot com
from that work shirking
fast thinking
magic talking
street smart
gone gone gone
joel