LOCKLIN POEM IN BLANK VERSE

I rise in defense of private, copyright property: for the “text” of Gerald Locklin’s “Homage to John Cage” is identical with that of my poem, “The Lazy Man Says Hello to God” (Christopher’s Books).

I ask you: Is this plagiarism, or is it not?

I omitted registering my poem with the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s shortest. I held off because I saw a logical question whether a poem with no words at all could be said to possess extension or duration--an issue which Locklin’s non-text raises in alluding to John Cage. Unlike Locklin’s heavy-handed art object, however, mine was a bona fide expression of its fictive protagonist’s ruling passion (laziness), which later in the “narrative” would prove itself in a haiku only 4-5-3 syllables long.

JOHN RIDLAND

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

UC SANTA BARBARA

Homage to John Cage

by Gerald Locklin

Editor’s Note: Gerald Locklin’s poem is reprinted above as it appeared in the April 30, 1989, Book Review. John Cage is the composer of, among other works, 4’33,” which consists of a pianist sitting at his instrument in silence for four minutes and 33 seconds.