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Charles Reznikoff: Te Deum
Not because of victories
I sing,
having none,
but for the common sunshine,
the breeze,
the largess of the spring.
Not for victory
but for the day’s work done
as well as I was able;
not for a seat upon the dais
but at the common table.
~~~~
Editor’s note: January 10, 2025. Siege of Jerusalem (425 BCE). On the 10th of Tevet of the year 3336 from Creation (425 BCE), the armies of the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem. Thirty months later — on Tammuz 17, 3338 — the city walls were breached, and on 9 Av of that year, the Holy Temple was destroyed. The Jewish people were exiled to Babylonia for 70 years.
~~
Charles Reznikoff (1894 – 1976) was born in the Jewish neighborhood of Brownsville in Brooklyn, New York. He is best known for his long work, Testimony: The United States (1885–1915), which was based on court records and explored the experiences of immigrants, black people and the urban and rural poor in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He followed this with Holocaust (1975), based on court testimony about Nazi death camps during World War II.
Poem from Inscriptions: 1944-1956 by Charles Reznikoff. Charles Reznikoff Papers MSS 0009. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library.
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Ah! A seat “at the common table”! Such humility❤️
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Oh, that poem. I have a “Personal Anthology” in which I type poems I love. This one just inserted, a few minutes ago. Thank you, dear Michael!
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I do the same thing! Te Deum has been in my anthology for a number of years!
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It’s a great poem!
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Thank you for this poem, which is not only art, but a recipe for living as a humane artist in the world. This is one of my essential poems.
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Thanks, Donna, for mentioning the poem to me a few weeks ago. I’d forgotten about it.
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My pleasure. ❤️❤️
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On any given day there are boundaries we cannot breach; that’s why we dream of a better future, join the PTA, drive a fuel-efficient truck, or talk and listen at the negotiating table. Today we make our case, stay keen, primed to make changes when we can, when we are able!
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Well-said, Jim.
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Be just described the mode I’m in.
perfectly timed Michael!
Sheer brilliance is at the helm of this ship.
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Thanks, Sean!
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I guess I meant to say “He” just described…It was early…
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no problem, Sean. Everyone has typos every now and then.
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