Hugh Seidman: Now a Window Is Dark

in

Born in Brooklyn in 1940, Hugh Seidman, who died earlier this month, wrote tensile lines forged with scientific and prophetic fire from Collecting Evidence (1970) onward. The title of one of his later books, Somebody Stand Up and Sing, suggests the oracular power of his work. May his memory be for a blessing.

Hugh Seidman, 1940-2023

Hugh Seidman

 I Do Not Know Myself

 I do not know myself
I go to dark and am of dark

Ignorant of myself

I sleep and dream--
But not enlightened

Nor when I wake
And remember dream

All I have not seen
All I will not see again

That I will take to ignorant dark

Desire is unchanged
Year on year it is on

Each page to turn
Each face to love

If I loved
Till the end of the world

It would never be done

Once I was a son
Once I had all the time in the world

Now a day starts
Now it ends
Now a window is dark