Samuel Menashe: "Rue"

For what I did

And did not do
And do without
In my old age
Rue, not rage
Against that night
We go into,
Sets me straight
On what to do
Before I die—
Sit in the shade,
Look at the sky



"Rue" by Samuel Menashe, from Samuel Menashe: New and Selected Poems, edited by Christopher Ricks. © The Library of America, 2005.

Art credit: Untitled digitally manipulated image, perhaps by Jack Smyth (originally color).

Samuel Menashe: "Now"

                                
                                   There is never an end to loss, or hope
                                   I give up the ghost for which I grope
                                   Over and over again saying Amen
                                   To all that does or does not happen—
                                   The eternal event is now, not when

"Now" by Samuel Menashe, from Samuel Menashe: New and Selected Poems, Expanded Edition. © Library of Congress, 2005.

Photography credit: by Martin Duffy, a friend of Menashe, who writes of this image: "In the summer of 2000 Sam was again spending time in Ireland during his 75th year.... we took a walk one evening along a strand. Sam halted with a piece of wood and wrote a poem of his in the sand:

Pity us
By the sea
On the sands
So briefly

"As he was doing this, I took a photograph. When I sent him photographs of his holiday with me, he singled out this photograph as the one that 'defined' him in his 75th year."

Samuel Menashe: "Here Now"

Now and again
I am here now
And now is when
I’m here again

"Here Now" by Samuel Menashe. Published in Poetry, September 2009. 

Photography credit: Unknown (originally color).