I haven’t read enough of George Oppen to identify his major themes, but, like William Carlos Williams, he has written a number of poems focusing on the poor, and so far those tend to be my favorite poems, this one in particular:
THE SOURCE
If the city has roots, they are in filth.
It is a slum. Even the sidewalk
Rasps under the feet.
-In some black brick
Tenement, a woman’s body
Glows. The gleam; the unimaginable
Thin feet taper down
The instep naked to the wooden floor!
Hidden and disguised
-and shy?
The city’s
Secret warmth.
perhaps because it reflects some of my own experiences.
It seemed to me that the men in the poor areas where I grew up were most often angry or “tough,” perhaps because they needed to be to survive.
The women were tough, too; they had to be in order to survive; but they were often secretively kind and loving, managing to make such a life bearable.
