At Cross Purposes
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Samuel Menashe was born in New York City in 1925. He was educated at Queens College of the City University of New York and at the Sorbonne in
. . . MORE »By Samuel Menashe
1
Is this writing mine
Whose name is this
Did I underline
What I was to miss?
2
An upheaval of leaves
Enlightens the tree
Rooted it receives
Gusts on a spree
3
Beauty makes me sad
Makes me grieve
I see what I must leave
4
Scaffold, gallows
Do whose will
Who hallows wood
To build, kill
5
Blind man, anvil
No hammer strikes
Your eyes are spikes
Samuel Menashe, “At Cross Purposes” from Samuel Menashe: New and Selected Poems, edited by Christopher Ricks, published by The Library of America, 2005. Copyright © 2004 by Samuel Menashe. Used by permission of the author.