The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

"The blindness that opens the eye is not the one that darkens the
vision. Tears and not sight are the essence of the eye." Jacques
Derrida.

In 1973 a small book on the theme of Vagrancy, written by
Lenkiewicz, was published parallel to the opening of the Vagrancy
Exhibition in a large derelict building on The Barbican, known at that
time as 'Jacob's Ladder'. The book was introduced by an essay titled:
Melancholy, the 'Dance of Death' and Fool Symbolism, in relation to
Vagrancy. In this essay Lenkiewicz associated contemporary Vagrancy
with a tradition that predates Durer's brooding figure of 'Melancholia'.

Hieronimo, in Kyd's 'Spanish Tragedy' declaims on melancholy:

"There is a path upon your left hand side, that leadeth from a
guilty conscience unto a forest of distrust and fear, A darksome place
and dangerous to pass: There shall you meet with melancholy thoughts,
whose baleful humours if you but uphold, It will conduct you to despair
and death."

Lenkiewicz considered the extraordinary medieval iconography that
represents the 'Dance of Death'; and in particular the image of Death
as 'Jester'.

"In 1568 a Fool Society elected itself in Poland under the name of
the 'Babinian Republic'. Its structure was a duplicate of the Polish
Constitution, and it filled its offices by employing fools. Those
activities perpetrated by non members that were considered sufficiently
foolish, were admired, and the person responsible for it was forced to
join this Society. He was supplied with a licence, seal and a position
that suited his folly. The Society became so large that hardly any
person of consequence in Church or Government was not a member of it.
Eventually the King of Poland, Sigismund August II, asked the Babinian
Republic if they had a King. He was informed that as long as he lived
the Society would not dream of electing another."

The poor-law legislation act of 1388 forbade the relief of
able-bodied beggars. It took 500 years for repressive and punishment
techniques to be replaced by rehabilitative ones. Attitudes towards the
vagrant have changed far less than the laws. To put the 'law' or
'service' into operation does not carry with it the commitment or the
responsibility of the man paid to do it.

"Fool Societies continue to self-elect."

In the early seventies Lenkiewicz schmilosophically influenced by
Schweitzer, Buber and Dolci, took over a number of derelict premises
where he housed several hundred (dossers, cowboys) vagrants. The
manager of Olivetti's in Southside Street allowed Lenkiewicz to present
the Project on Vagrancy in the large stables at the rear of his
property in 1973. Lenkiewicz became involved with a wide range of
remarkable street-people. Some of them were difficult, dangerous and
extremely demanding. He established relationships with similar
'do-gooding' group activities in Exeter, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds
and London; as a result of which, it was possible to 'swap' the problem
'cowboys' with mutual benefit. Endless tales can be told about these
unusual personalities, some of whom reminded Lenkiewicz of wandering
visionaries like the Desert Fathers. He learnt early on not to
romanticise or sentimentalise the lives of people who suffered in
varying and complex ways from alcoholism and who had severed normal
contacts with Society. The 'Cowboys' divided themselves into what they
called "I st, 2nd and 3rd Division and non-league players".

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
'Walking Stick'.

"It ain't no good in squawkin' when you're stoney broke and walkin'."
'Brother Blair'.

"If your feet get sore, walk on your hands."
'Senator Lynch'.

They had formulated a curious language out of a limited number of words:

"Let's tarpaulin muster, no deep tankin'. I've done a Hank Marvin
with a comic singer, and the gaff hanger is coming to the bardo. Muster
yolks are dead sham, shoot the craw, no more Jack the Ripper. I haven't
broken ice and there's no Giro for Cairo. A rustle is better than a
rattle, we'll need a Burma Star for the quick draw. Box clever, dive
bomb or we're for Jimmy the rattler. The dirty rat's done a Cagney, so
we'll need a bottle of the hurry up. I'm stuck with a Tootie Hawker and
a colshy Muck, there 's no ships on the horizon an' me trousers are a
laggin' cage."

Some of their names:

'Gentleman Jim', 'The Horse', 'Jukebox', 'Have no fear', 'Mouth
McCarthy', 'Be-my-guest', 'The Bishop', 'Brother Blair', 'Chic the
Bam', 'Steal-a-Horse', ' The Bag-o-Rags', 'The Singer', 'The Steam
Hammer', 'The Rhodesian', 'Harmonica Jim', 'Scarface Fitz', 'Big John
Wayne', 'One Way Rogers', 'Straight Back', 'The Roadrunner',
'Mephistopheles', 'Tank', 'Big Take it Easy', 'Black Sam', 'Cockney
Jim', 'The Irish Compressor', 'Billy the Kid', 'Senator Lynch',
'Brighton', 'Big John Barr', 'The Janner', 'Tragic Limp', 'The Silent
Beggar', 'No more cider for old Les Ryder',

Nearly all of the above are now dead.