Muriel Rukeyser (December 15, 1913 – February 12, 1980) was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism. Kenneth Rexroth said that she was the greatest poet of her “exact generation”.
One of her most powerful pieces was a group of poems entitled The Book of the Dead (1938), documenting the details of the Hawk’s Nest incident, an industrial disaster in which hundreds of miners died of silicosis.
Her poem “To be a Jew in the Twentieth Century” (1944), on the theme of Judaism as a gift, was adopted by the American Reform and Reconstructionist movements for their prayer books, something Rukeyser said “astonished” her, as she had remained distant from Judaism throughout her early life.
ELEGY IN JOY
Muriel Rukeyser
We tell beginnings: for the flesh and the answer,
or the look, the lake in the eye that knows,
for the despair that flows down in widest rivers,
cloud of home; and also the green tree of grace,
all in the leaf, in the love that gives us ourselves.
The word of nourishment passes through the women,
soldiers and orchards rooted in constellations,
white towers, eyes of children:
saying in time of war What shall we feed?
I cannot say the end.
Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings.
Not all things are blest, but the
seeds of all things are blest.
The blessing is in the seed.
This moment, this seed, this wave of the sea, this look, this instant of love.
Years over wars and an imagining of peace. Or the expiation journey
toward peace which is many wishes flaming together,
fierce pure life, the many-living home.
Love that gives us ourselves, in the world known to all
new techniques for the healing of the wound,
and the unknown world. One life, or the faring stars.
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TWO BODIES
Muriel Rukeyser
Two bodies face to face
are at times two waves
and night is an ocean.
Two bodies face to face
are at times two stones
and night is a desert.
Two bodies face to face
are at times two knives
and night strikes sparks.
Two bodies face to face
are at times two roots
and night is the earth.
Two bodies face to face
are two stars falling down
in an empty sky.
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YES
Muriel Rukeyser
It’s like a tap-dance
Or a new pink dress,
A shit-naive feeling
Saying Yes.
Some say Good morning
Some say God bless—
Some say Possibly
Some say Yes.
Some say Never
Some say Unless
It’s stupid and lovely
To rush into Yes.
What can it mean?
It’s just like life,
One thing to you
One thing to your wife.
Some go local
Some go express
Some can’t wait
To answer Yes.
Some complain
Of strain and stress
The answer may be
No for Yes.
Some like failure
Some like success
Some like Yes Yes
Yes Yes Yes.
Open your eyes,
Dream but don’t guess.
Your biggest surprise
Comes after Yes.