Adrienne Rich. May 16, 1929 - March 27, 2012

[redqueen]

First having read the book of myths,
and loaded the camera,
and checked the edge of the knife-blade,
I put on
the body-armor of black rubber
the absurd flippers
the grave and awkward mask.
I am having to do this
not like Cousteau with his
assiduous team
aboard the sun-flooded schooner
but here alone.

...


from Diving into the Wreck
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15228

[redqueen]

1. from Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law

1.

You, once a belle in Shreveport,
with henna-colored hair, skin like a peachbud,
still have your dresses copied from that time,
and play a Chopin prelude
called by Cortot: "Delicious recollections
float like perfume through the memory."

Your mind now, moldering like wedding-cake,
heavy with useless experience, rich
with suspicion, rumor, fantasy,
crumbling to pieces under the knife-edge
of mere fact. In the prime of your life.

Nervy, glowering, your daughter
wipes the teaspoons, grows another way.

....

http://poems.com/special_features/prose/essay_hacker3.php

[SheilaT]

2. I did not know she was no longer with us.

About thirty years ago I tested out of a semester of college English comp by being able to analyze one of her poems. Apparently, at that school, it was almost impossible to do well enough to test out, but I did. For one thing, it was a poem that really spoke to me. For another, I'd been taking lit classes, so my analytic skills were pretty sharp.

[redqueen]

4. Nice!

That's some impressive analytic ability.

Sorry to deliver the news of her passing on her birthday.

[fishwax]

3. such a great poem

hard to pick a favorite part of it, but the one that usually sticks in my mind the most is the start of the sixth stanza:

I came to explore the wreck,
The words are purposes,
The words are maps.
I came to see the damage that was done
And the treasures that prevail.

Thanks for giving me a reason to dwell on this poem again.

[redqueen]

5. My pleasure