Overheard Poem by gershon hepner

I do not write down all the words I hear
in buses, restaurants or parks or theaters.
The reason’s not a problem with my ear,
I have a healthy auditory meatus,
And there is very little that escapes
me even when the words are somewhat blurred,
especially the parts like juicy grapes
whose juice squirts in my ears when overheard.
There are two reasons that I do not write
what I so love to hear in any place
that’s public, semi-private, even might
be private sometimes––it is no disgrace
to overhear what's private if you get
away with it, and do not tape record.
One reason is I easily forget,
the other is I’m very quickly bored,
except the juicy parts that, when they’re mentioned,
squirt in my ears like juice that’s tart and sweet.
To write these down I surely have a penchant,
since they are so delicious to repeat,
but since I don’t, you have to read instead
the thoughts my mind has when it hears and thinks
the comments that aren’t overheard or said
in places where the public eats or drinks.


Mel Gussow interviews Harold Pinter in 'The Playwright's Other Pursuit' (NYT, December 30,1999) . Harold Pinter, who lives in Notting Hill Gate, played the role of Sir Thomas Bertram in Patricia Rozema's free adaptation of 'Mansfield Park', a 'heavy' role, as Vladimir Nabokov pointed out, but one that Pinter assumed with great assurance. His latest play, 'Celebration, ' and takes place in a restaurant where several couples collide over dinner. 'The play began with the fact that Mr. Pinter frequently eats in restaurants. He made it clear that he never writes down what he overhears, but when he dines out 'things hit you from all over the place, including laughter'.' The play is related to 'Mansfield Park, ' says Pinter, because it deals with the relationship between money and power. 'The quite simple assumption on the part of the rich is that they run the world, it's true.” He is right that the rich have it all wrong. It's not the rich that run the world, it's the judges. Ask Bill Gates.


12/30/99,12/25/08