Wittgenstein's Song

Heady for me to remember: amidst all the tumult of the mid-Aughts, I had a few moments where everything cohered in my brain, and I could create something intellectually representative, against prevailing winds more about sense and sensuality, rather than sensibility. Like many not trained in the rigors of formal logic, I only half-understood Wittgenstein's Tractatus. Yet, I found the portion I understood not only interesting but moving, on a psycho-affective level; something that integrated itself in my consciousness in a well-rounded way. So, sitting outside at the Last Drop on the corner of 13th and Pine, on a warm April day in 2005, I composed the first draft of Wittgenstein's Song. The juxtaposition of Wittgenstein and Logical Positivism with a lyrical impulse, I knew would be construed as strange. Yet, if I felt drawn towards the idea of doing Wittgenstein persona-style that way, it was because the strangeness of the juxtaposition would (I hoped) jounce people into an awareness that Logical Positivism could be seen to have a psycho-affective element, just as Deconstruction (arguably) does. The first draft I scrawled on that April day at the Last Drop was put into my bag, as I left, strolled down 13th Street, into South Philly, towards Gaetan Spurgin's studio, to take care of some Free School biz. The poem was debuted at an NEC workshop that summer, tumult aside, with Carol Frost; and stands as an ensign, at least for myself, that the conjunction in verse of art and philosophy can be, at its best, a viable and vital reality, as it also demonstrates a version of the mid-Aughts in Philadelphia more serious than just showmanship, visible elsewhere too. It is arguable that the poem could be considered presumptuous, in that I am daring to put words in Wittgenstein's mouth. Yet, without denying this, I would also argue that the poem adds to the repertoire of what has happened or accrued to Wittgenstein as an entity in the world, as well. Those who know the poem can judge these things for themselves. Also worth knowing that Wittgenstein's Song is on PennSound twice, front-loaded here too.