Breaking the Jaws of Silence: Sixty American Poets Speak to the World

Language Acquisition: No and Yes

ALICIA OSTRIKER Language Acquisition: No and Yes For the Refuser Network At every moment somewhere in the world some child is learning to say no standing triumphant at the top of the stairs or crying and turning red with frustration at the parents: I say no therefore I am and you cannot stop me! Many possibilities sprout from this seed this phoneme as powerful as zero inside a person a chromosome with a helmet on and an optional comic mask— Hitler and Stalin say no, the killer says a burning no the suicide says no, but the poets Moses Buddha Jesus Mohammed say no and yes our friends in Cairo and Ramallah say no and yes no to the mind-forg’d manacles no to the piggy palaces and cathedrals yes to the page that says free yourself from mental slavery and the yes that springs from the deepest no becomes a tree of life, fibers composed of words its branches adorned with fruit of every shade 62 ✦ ALICIA OSTRIKER You cannot order me I refuse You cannot order me I refuse ALICIA OSTRIKER ✦ 63 ...