title: Light In Hand: Selected Early Poems of Lola Ridge
author:  Lola Ridge 
description: Lola Ridge was born in Dublin, grew up in New Zealand and Australia, and moved to the United States in 1907. Her first book, The Ghetto and Other Poems was published in 1918. The title poem portrays the Jewish community of Hester Street New York, and deals with the effects of capitalism, gender conflict and conflicts between generations on this immigrant community in ways that bear comparison to the works of Charles Reznikoff. The book was a critical success and led to her involvement with avant-garde magazines such as Others and Broom. Ridge went on to publish four more books of poetry.
zlib_text:   
  
  **Works of Lola Ridge**
  
  Table of Contents
  
    
  
   _Sun-Up and Other Poems_
  
   _The Ghetto and Other Poems_
  
    
    
  
  Sun-Up and Other Poems
  
  Lola Ridge
  
  Sun-Up and Other Poems
  
  1920
  
  DEDICATION
  
  (To my Mother)
  
  Let me cradle myself back
  
  Into the darkness
  
  Of the half shapes…
  
  Of the cauled beginnings…
  
  Let me stir the attar of unused air,
  
  Elusive… ironically fragrant
  
  As a dead queen's kerchief…
  
  Let me blow the dust from off you…
  
  Resurrect your breath
  
  Lying limp as a fan
  
  In a dead queen's hand.
  
  Thanks is due to THE NEW REPUBLIC, POETRY, A MAGAZINE OF VERSE, PLAY-BOY, and
  
  OTHERS for permission to reprint some of these poems.
  
  TABLE
  
  I SUN UP
  
  SUN-UP
  
  II MONOLOGUES
  
  JAGUAR WILD DUCK THE DREAM ALTITUDE COMRADES NOCTURNE CACTUS SEED
  
  III WINDOWS
  
  TIME-STONE TRAIN WINDOW SCANDAL ELECTRICITY SKYSCRAPERS WALL STREET AT NIGHT
  EAST RIVER
  
  IV SECRETS
  
  INTERIM AFTER STORM SECRETS POTPOURRI THAW
  
  V PORTRAITS
  
  MOTHER E.S. H. O.F.T. E.A.R.
  
  VI SONS OF BELIAL
  
  SONS OF BELIAL
  
  VII REVEILLE
  
  IN