The Solitudes of Charles Reznikoff

Today, I'd like to celebrate the diligent austerity of the language of the poetry of Charles Reznikoff. I commend to you “Autobiography: New York,” a series of 35 brief poems published in 1941 in his book Going To and Fro and Walking Up and Down.

Charles Reznikoff, photo © Academy of American Poets,
75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038

The series puts on full display Reznikoff's characteristic clarity and the indelibility of his images. Each poem registers as a revelation, a moment burgeoning from deep solitude. Here are some of my favorite passages. They are self-contained Jewish koans, ripe for contemplation:

If you wish to eat fish freely,
cucumbers and melons,
you should have stayed in Egypt.
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I do not like people who walk about
so late; who walk slowly after midnight
through the leaves fallen on the sidewalks.
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I like the sound of the street—
but I, apart and alone,
beside an open window
and behind a closed door.
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Now it is cold: where the snow was melting
the walk crackles with black ice beneath my careful steps
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I find myself talking aloud
as I walk;
that is bad.
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A star or two shining
between factory chimneys
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There is nobody in the street
of those who crowded about David
to watch me
as I dance before the Lord
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This pavement barren
as the mountain
on which God spoke to Moses—
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Sit still
beside the open window
and let the wind
the gentle wind,
blow in your face
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Single lights; many lights; lights along highways, lights along streets

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From The Poems of Charles Reznikoff by Charles Reznikoff, edited by Seamus Cooney. Reprinted by permission of Black Sparrow Books, an imprint of David R. Godine, Publisher, Inc. Copyright 2005 by Charles Reznikoff.

Source: Poems 1918-1975: The Complete Poems of Charles Reznikoff (Black Sparrow Press, 1977)