Samuel Menashe and Ilya Bernstein Poetry Reading

Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 7:00 PM

Russian Bookstore No. 21
174 Fifth Ave (between 22nd and 23rd St)
Manhattan

Samuel Menashe's most recent collections of poems are New and Selected Poems (Library of America, 2005) and an expanded edition of the same book, New and Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2008). He was born in New York City to Russian-Jewish immigrants and lives in New York City to this day. A recent appraisal of Menashe's work may be found here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/article.html?id=239970

Enlightenment
He walked in awe
In awe of light
At nightfall, not at dawn
Whatever he saw
Receding from sight
In the sky's afterglow
Was what he wanted
To see, to know

Ilya Bernstein is the author of one collection of poems, Attention and Man, and the editor of Osip Mandelstam: New Translations (both published by Ugly Duckling Presse). He was born in Moscow, came to the United States as a child, and lives in New York City.

Some fall in love, while others fall in with love
And become its companions on a road
That has no destination.
What kind of company do they keep?
They keep the company of love
In a fellowship of wayfarers. They follow love
In sufferance of the consequences of love.
They tell themselves: "My heart
Has done an unheard-of thing:
It has gone ahead and fallen in with love.
My heart has done an undreamt-of thing:
It has lost its way and fallen in with love."