Poetry Thursday - Rue by Samuel Menashe

Rue

BY SAMUEL MENASHE

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 

(via Poetry Foundation's Poem of the Day podcast; hear it read here)

Samuel Menashe has created many compact and precise 

poems. "His art is the jeweller's art."

Born in 1925, he studied biochemistry and after WW2 used 

his GI Bill money to study at the Sorbonne, writing a PhD 

dissertation "ur l'expérience poétique". He lived in New York 

for most of his life, until his death in 2011.