Transcript of Samuel Menashe audio

Pity us By the Sea On the sands So briefly If you're published for the first time in Poetry magazine or in many magazines, they're contributor's notes; but if it's the first time there's an asterisk next to your name “first time contributor.” And to the contributor's note I said I have no false pride, I had three manuscripts out, I said “I'm looking for a publisher” and a friend who became a friend through my work, he thought it was beneath my dignity as a poet to put a help wanted notice into this contributor's note.  But in the middle of the summer I get a telephone call in which they tell me they're giving me an award, I thought well I'll get well $1500 it's very nice and the award they gave me was they created it for me, the Neglected Masters Award.  So when I was about 80, suddenly this Cinderellesque transformation of my life.  I might have died at a mere 78 and it never would have happened.  This poem is called "On the Level."  Is this desk level? With the window sill Uphold my level best Or is the bed better? For dreams that distill Words to the letter Now William Blake said that rhetoric comes from a quarrel one has with the world and poetry comes with the quarrel one has with oneself.  "Curriculum Vitae" 1 Scribe out of work At a loss for words Not his to begin with, The man life passed by Stands at the window Biding his time 2 Time and again And now once more I climb these stairs Unlock this door— No name where I live Alone in my lair With one bone to pick And no time to spare