LitHub kindly reminded me that five years ago today Adrienne Rich died. You may or may not know her as one of the most amazing women and thoughtful poets ever. If, for the rest of my life, the only thing I could read were her words, both prose and poetry, I would not feel deprived for a moment. Yeah, I know. I love her work that much. When she died I had just started reading what turned out to be her last poetry collection. I have not been able to bring myself to finish it. Last year her collected poems were published and of course I had to buy it.
The LitHub article that reminded me of her death uses Rich’s prose to provide “life advice.” I am not sure she would have liked that much. Her work is deeply personal and specific and she dated everything as a way to indicate that. Nor did she ever try to offer advice, only explored thoughts and ways of being, searching for a path, a way to be a more complete human. She tried to see the connections between things, how the seemingly unrelated was linked into a spider’s web of relationship. And she sought to re-member that which had been broken or lost.
So it seemed appropriate to share some of her poetry but I find I am having a hard time choosing. I keep picking up a book, reading familiar poems I have read dozens of time, catching my breath in astonishment at their beauty and power, bursting into tears because the words tear into (or maybe even from?) my body. It’s been five years since I picked up her books, read her words. I feel like I have been away a long time but have somehow never left. I want to sit and keep reading, poem after poem and not stop until I have read them all and then I want to start over and read them all again. And again.
Well. So. To choose something for now, here is the final stanza of “Dreams Before Waking” written in 1983 and published in the collection Your Native Land, Your Life
What would it mean to live
in a city whose people were changing
each other’s despair into hope? —
You yourself must change it. —
what would it feel like to know
your country was changing? —
You yourself must change it. —
Though your life felt arduous
new and unmapped and strange
what would it mean to stand on the first
page of the end of despair?
That’s a funny coincidence. I don’t read very much poetry, but I was intrigued by a post of yours a few years ago about writing exercises for poetry reading. I thought I would give it a try. I picked up a poetry anthology and flipped through until I found a poem that caught my attention to try the exercises on. That poem was Adrienne Rich’s “Power” about Marie Curie. I had no idea that she was a favorite of yours, but based on that poem, I can understand why.
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biblioglobal, I remember that post! How was the exercise/s? “Power” is a good one. Rich has a couple of poems about women scientists that are really great. I studied her work in college and wrote my English master’s thesis on her work. My professor and adviser knew her and and a group of students got to have lunch with her. I was so terrified of looking like an idiot I didn’t speak a word. 🙂
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The exercises were fun and I will probably try them again sometime. I enjoyed seeing what the outcomes were, though I don’t know how much they actually helped me understand the poem more.
That says a lot that you did a thesis on Rich and you still love her work that much!
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Very cool! Heh, I think I loved her even more by the time I was done writing. 🙂
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Oh…Stefanie….that was simply…I am awestruck…..this was such a marvelous thing to read, what would it mean to stand on the first
page of the end of despair?…. this just blew me away!
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cirtnecce, I am glad you liked it! What a thing to imagine, yes? And that is just one stanza from one of her many poems. You can see why I love her so much 🙂
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I remember writing a paper in college on “Diving into the Wreck.” At the time, I liked her poetry, but I think I was too young to really grasp her; I hadn’t yet had much life experience. This is a beautiful post, thank you – inspires me to look at her work once again.
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Valorie, That’s a good one! But yes, takes some work that’s for sure. I hope if you revisit her work you find much to enjoy 🙂
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That’s beautiful, feel very relevant and reminds me of your sustainability book group, you are turning each other’s despair into hope. An excellent goal.
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maggie, glad you enjoyed it! As I was reading through looking for a poem I was delighted and saddened by just how relevant her work remains. Despair into to hope, it is hard work, but good work 🙂
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One of my favorites is Implosions! Thanks for the reminder!
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jenclair, oh Implosions, that’s a really good one! Any opportunity to spread the words of Adrienne Rich 🙂
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❤ ❤ ❤ I'm reading The Dream of a Common Language for the third time in about 8 months. It was only about a year ago that I started reading her, but she's become essential to me. "Bursting into tears because the words tear into (or maybe even from?) my body" is about right. "Splittings" gave me life these past few weeks. Last night I was sobbing to "Nights and Days". She's everything.
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Ana, oh I love that collection so much! Splittings is amazing, but my favorite is Transcendental Etude. Yes, I agree, she is everything.
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I’ve only read a few of her poems here and there but I really need to check out one of her collections.Love the bit you shared!
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Iliana, the collection this one is from is really good. One of my favorite collections of hers is called Dream of a Common Language. In case you are trying to decide 🙂
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