Erik Seadale

I was talking to a poet the other day, (not actually as terrifying as it sounds) and wanting to know what drove her, what was the fuel for her fiery verses, I asked "so, how do you do it, what gets your juices flowing"?

"I love life, sex, freedom," she replied, "those are my raw materials, I just throw them onto the page."

I agreed that these were things worthy of unqualified support; but didn’t they require a bit of shaping before being tossed onto the page? "No!" she argued--like over-cooked vegetables leaking vitamins, poetry would lose its goodness if kept bottled up too long. She had a point. Too often writers rely on computers to alter and shift everything until the final over-processed output bears little resemblance to the original idea.

Of course not all ideas in either poetry or literature are worth sharing in their original form. It requires discipline to separate the ideas that shed light on the variegated subtleties of the author’s character from the ones which have a more widespread appeal. It also requires editing.

The aim of "Silent City" is to give readers ideas worth thinking about. We want the ideas to be raw and original; we also want them to be articulate and have universal interest.

And speaking of discipline, it is with great reluctance that I withhold my own opinions concerning the recent World Trade Organization talks in Seattle. Though sorely tempted, the rules in the manifesto are clear: no political opinions whatsoever. I can not be any more specific about my views except than to state that all intelligent readers would certainly have agreed with them.

The name "Silent City" has no particular connection to the contents of the column. The name simply popped into my head one night and I knew immediately it was the right name. I thought it sounded cool, and it also reminded me of a description of an eerie, ancient Egyptian necropolis as written by a writer of old school pulp fiction (doubly cool). But, as is so often the case, I felt I needed justification for what I had done after the fact. Why name it "Silent City"? Well, maybe the idea is to create a voice for those in the city whose voices are unheard, silent even? No, I certainly wouldn’t trust anyone who made that lofty a claim, and I am generous enough to concede that city’s press is already diverse enough to cover a wide range of views. Perhaps the title is not merely an ironic name for New York, but actually a metaphor for the individual who, within herself, contains a multitude of silenced voices (imagine a quiet schizophrenic). Readers will doubtless recall the Biblical demon who when asked to identify himself said "my name is Legion: for we are many."

Finally I came to my senses and realized that a name is a name is a name; it’s a nice sounding title and I’m leaving it at that.