Carl Rakosi

Carl Rakosi was born in Berlin and immigrated to the United States with his father and stepmother in 1910, settling in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rakosi attended the University of Chicago (where he began to write poetry), the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Pennsylvania. His poetry was influenced by the American modernist Ezra Pound, who introduced him to the objectivist poets Louis Zukofsky, Charles Reznikoff, and George Oppen. He abandoned poetry from 1940 to 1967 because he found it less relevant than his work as executive director of Jewish Family and Children’s Services in Minneapolis. His later works, including various “Meditations,” turn to more explicitly Jewish themes, including the poetry of Solomon ibn Gabirol, Judah Halevi, and Moses ibn Ezra.