When Reason Counters Reason Poem by Ananta Madhavan

'On the other hand', began the rational man,
‘I am ambidextrous, being equally adept
With both my left hand and the right.
So let me present the other point of view.
I feel I must oppose what others hold as true.
That might annoy the Chairman as well as you,
As a life-member of my Sub-committee,
You see.
Being a contrarian,
I always try to see both view-points,
And so I justified myself.

One day some four decades ago,
I read an article on American writers,
Wherein the great Victorian poet, Walt
Whitman was quoted. He wrote
A long, long poem, almost book-length
‘A Song of Myself'. Good I did not hear it sung
For a day and a half of Selfie-Epic in prosaic poetry
Or poetic prose of somnologue.

He said something I too have felt when criticized
By tiresome types who disagree with me.
Walt Whitman coolly said, "Very well, I contradict myself.
I am vast, I contain multitudes."


But something troubles me. If a contradiction
Cancels itself, it becomes valid,
And simultaneously invalid:
This makes it impossible to exist
This side of reason.

But on the other hand,
It becomes the only contradiction
Permissible as such in logic.
So freely contradict yourself
This side of paradise.