A Muriel Rukeyser Reader

by Jan Heller Levi, Muriel Rukeyser

Features selections of poetry and prose from "Theory of Flight," "The Life of Poetry," "The Speed of Darkness," "Breaking Open," "The Gates," and other works

Genres: Poetry

294 pages, Hardcover

First published April 17, 1995

About the author

Jan Heller Levi, poet, was a student and a long-time friend of June Jordan. She is, with Sara Miles, co-executor of the June M. Jordan Literary Estate Trust. With Miles, she co-edited Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan, and, with Christoph Keller, co-edited We’re On: A June Jordan Reader. Her most recent book of poems, That’s the Way to Travel, was published in a bilingual edition (English/German) by Moloko Print in 2019. She lives in Switzerland with her husband Christoph Keller.

Reviews

[Seamus Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this up at the library after a conversation with a new acquaintance. Planned to sample it for 20-30 minutes before moving on to the other two books I checked out at the same time. Instead, I spent more than three hours reading poem and after poem, throughout the collection, and copying favorite bits. Eager to dive back in soon. Some favorites:

Breathe-in experience, breathe-out poetry :
Not Angles, angels
(from Poem Out Of Childhood, 1935)

After awhile, of course, we left,
the room was getting so jammed with editors.
(from Three Sides of a Coin, 1935)

But really I cannot hear the words. I cannot hear the song.
This may still be my dream
But the night seems very long.
(from The Child in the Great Wood, 1944)

I make my magic
of forgotten things"
night and nightmare and the midnight wings
of childhood butterflies--
(from I Make My Magic, 1973)

When you see a woman riding the air
Well, you see a woman playing with fire,
A woman made of storm and desire
And she loves the whole damn zoo.
But you can be sure, whatever I do,
...That I need my beer and bacon too.
(from Beer and Bacon, 1973)

Open your eyes,
Dream but don't guess.
Your biggest surprise
Comes after Yes.
(from Yes, 1973)

[atito · Rating 5 out of 5]

haha yeah

[Cooper Renner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did I read every page? Of course not. But enough. At her best she excels most of her contemporaries, even very early on. I want to see more of US1.

[Elaine Nelson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is my 2nd take at this book, which I've owned (and moved!) for quite a while, and I think it's official: I don't really like Muriel Rukeyser. I've tried, mostly for the sake of Adrienne Rich, whose poetry I love, but something about Rukeyer's work just doesn't click for me. I should probably analyze what that is as I work on re-inventing my own poetic style.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great gathering of work by a great American poet. The blend of her most important poems (including "Effort At Speech Between Two People," from her first book) with excerpts from her prose work, The Life of Poetry, makes the "dialog" at the heart of Rukeyser's work all the more profound.

[Amira Hanafi]

especially theory of flight

[Mills College Library]

811 R934m 1994