Samuel Menashe Book

Two quotes summarize the poet's style.

The first, from Derek Mahon, who distinguished Menashe's poems for their "compression and crystalization".

The second, from Samuel Menashe, who described his way of writing and way of living thus: "every day was the only day."

Indeed, the poetry of Menashe is remarkable for its constraint and for its immediacy.

The constraint of Menashe's poems is what struck me first. One can't help but notice the amount of empty space. Admittedly, it feels a waste not to combine two or three poems to a page, especially when some of Menashe's poems are no longer than four lines...

Crow I scorn you
Caw everywhere
You'll not subdue
This blue air
- Sudden Shadow (pg. 87)
* * *

Spokes slide
Upon a pole
Inside
The parasol
- To Open (pg. 122)
* * *

Taut with longing
You must become
The god you sought -
The only one
- Apotheosis (pg. 178)

The immediacy is most prominent in those poems about death. Of which there are many. Indeed, the poems about death might well have been written by a man who believed, as the poet claimed to believe, that "every day was the only day", that in effect every day was his last day...

Flowers, not bread
Cast upon the water -
The dead outlast
Whatever we offer
- The Offering (pg. 33)
* * *

At death's door
The end in sight
Is life, not death
Each breath you take
Is breathtaking
- What to Expect (pg. 158)

The poems about death are too numerous to cite. But that's not to suggest that the poet is morbid, or that he doesn't take pleasure from life. On the contrary, the poet celebrates many aspects of life...

I catnap, wake
Naked on my bed
Scrap paper spread -
Enough ink spilled
In rough drafts
To float the raft
- Heat Wave (pg. 49)

It is also worth noting that Menashe has found a tasteful way to incorporate rhyming into his poetry. I say "tasteful" not because I find rhyming "tasteless" but because it's not my taste (generally speaking). Menashe is the exception. In part because his poems are so short, the rhyming he employs is never distracting. In part because his rhymes are unpretentious. Some readers, however, may take issue with the simplicity of his rhyming. But I found it refreshing...

Flung inside out
The crammed mouth
Whose meal I am
Ground, devoured
I find myself now
Benignly empowered
- Awakening from Dreams (pg. 88)

Overall, I found the collection to be refreshing. The only exception being the handful of poems that dealt exhaustively with Christian themes, including quotations from the Bible...

Eyes open to praise
The play of light
Upon the ceiling -
While still abed raise
The roof this morning
Rejoice as you please
Your maker who made
This day while you slept,
Who gives you grace and ease,
Whose promise is kept.

'Let them sing for joy upon their beds.' - Psalm 149
- The Offering (pg. 80)