Ruth Fainlight Biography
Ruth Fainlight (born 2 May 1931, New York City, U.S.) is a poet, short story writer, translator and librettist.
Fainlight was born in New York, but has mainly lived in England since she was fifteen, having also spent some years living in France and Spain. She studied for two years at the Birmingham and Brighton Colleges of Arts and Crafts. In addition to her own works, Fainlight has also provided criticism for BBC Radio, Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian and numerous other publications.
She was married to the British writer Alan Sillitoe (1928–2010) and has a son, David, who is a photographer for The Guardian and an adopted daughter, Susan. She lives in London.
She has twice been Poet in Residence at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee and was a close friend of Sylvia Plath in the years leading up to Plath's death.
I feel a bit crazy tonight,
my mood heightened, unstable:
maybe because it's full moon,
or maybe because we're living
on borrowed time. But borrowed
from whom? Maybe the moon -
it could be the moon who allows
you to live beyond your due.
This morning the doctor said
he's amazed you're still alive.
I'm not. Why should you die?
Far more reason to live,
so much still to do.
We both look up at the moon,
and silently I beg:
be as generous as you can,
kindly usurer,
give me endless credit.
Later I'll pay my debts
(I already know
the price will be cruel). Please,
let me borrow again, let us gaze
at you again - and again -
new moon, crescent, full,
in a clear or clouded sky.
Do not allow this moment
to be, or to become, even
maybe, the very last time.
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