Muriel Rukeyser

Muriel Rukeyser (1913 - 1980) was born in New York City. Her first collection of poems, Theory of Flight, won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition in 1935. She was highly regarded by other poets of her time.

Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings.

Not all things are blest, but the

seeds of all things are blest.

The blessing is in the seed.

This moment, this seed, this wave of the sea, this look, this instant of love.

Love that gives us ourselves, in the world known to all

new techniques for the healing of the wound,

and the unknown world. One life, or the faring stars.

— Muriel Rukeyser from ‘Elegy in Joy’