Reznikoff: ‘By the Well of Living and Seeing’

 I think the poet Charles Reznikoff is a neglected master. There’s a section in Part II of this long poem that reads like scripture to me.

During the war, the poet stopped at a fruit stand in New York. The old Italian shopkeeper’s son had left for the front. The old man was in agony, and the poet tried to comfort him.

After the war, the poet found himself at the same fruit stand. He asked the seller about his son.

The old man said his son had come through just fine. As the fruit seller told the story, he removed a damaged apple from the poet’s sack and replaced it with a good one. He removed a small apple and replaced it with a larger one.

If you’re looking for a writing lesson: It’s sometimes possible to show what can hardly be told.

If you’re looking for an ethics lesson: We never know when we are going to encounter a person who is at the breaking point, a person who will find healing in a small bit of simple, civil conversation.