21 Dec LIGHT by Irving Feldman
Some things catch the light
A moment, or more, some
It passes by. Here and there
Men appear, blind, illuminated,
In a city somewhere, say,
Receiving light like a grace
One certain day. In darkness
Disappear. Blessed is sight, blest
That here and there, beyond
The fabling mind, its failings
In the dark, men appear
Before they go away.
About the Poet
photo credit G.A. Fischer
Irving Feldman is a major American poet who taught in the English Department at the State University of New York at Buffalo for 40 years, and is still active at age 97 in the Buffalo literary community. A Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at the University at Buffalo, where he taught from 1964 to 2004, he is the author of eleven full-length collections of poetry, for which he has received numerous literary awards, including a 1992 MacArthur Fellowship.
This poem is from his second book, The Pripet Marshes (Viking Press, 1961).
The son of Russian Jews who were recent immigrants to the U.S., he was born on September 22, 1928, in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn, N. Y. A child of the Great Depression, he was particularly affected by news about the Holocaust as it reached the U.S.–a tragedy that would greatly influence his future writing.
Feldman received a BA in social sciences from City College of New York (now City College of the City University of New York) in 1950 and an MA from Columbia University in 1953. Upon graduating he traveled to and taught in Puerto Rico and France before returning to the States and teaching at Kenyon College from 1958 to 1964. That year he began teaching at SUNY Buffalo, where he was eventually named Distinguished Professor of English and where he remained until his retirement in 2004.
Feldman’s first volume of poetry was the semi-autobiographical Works and Days, which appeared in 1961 and earned him immediate acclaim. It was followed by The Pripet Marshes (1965) and Leaping Clear (1976), both finalists for the National Book Award; All of Us Here (1986), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; The Life and Letters (1994), a finalist for the Poets’ Prize; and Beautiful False Things: Poems (2000); among others. His Collected Poems, 1954-2004 (Schocken Books, 2004; republished by Penguin Random House, 2009) was a career summary.
Feldman is the recipient of a National Institute of Arts and Letters award (1973) as well as fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation (1973), the Academy of American Poets (1986), and the MacArthur Foundation “Genius Award” in 1992.
The Poem of the Week feature is curated by literary legacy awardee R.D. Pohl.