RIP Adrienne Rich

[gwynnega]

Poet Adrienne Rich, 82, has died

In 1983, for my final high school semester, I ended up taking a controversial Women's Studies class (because the class I'd wanted to take had been canceled). It was my introduction to feminism, and it changed my life. Among the books on the syllabus were Adrienne Rich's The Dream of a Common Language and On Lies, Secrets, and Silence. Both of them changed the way I thought about writing and the world--and "Twenty-one Love Poems" in particular amazed me (and still amazes me) with its beauty.

I saw Rich read her poetry twice. The first time was in the late '80s at Bread & Roses Bookstore. (I remember I'd come to the bookstore straight from a full day of defending women's health clinics against the harassment of Operation Rescue. The more things change...). The second time was in 1991 at Sisterhood Bookstore, when An Atlas of the Difficult World had just come out. Both bookstores are now gone, and now so is she. It's hard for me to fathom, when I've spent so many years reading and rereading her poetry and nonfiction--so many years being entranced and infuriated and engaged by her work.

Comments

[kore]

Well fuuuuuuck. That is just terrible news.

[gwynnega]

I still can't believe it. & god knows, we still have need of her.

[usedtobeljs]

I know so many poets who've talked about what she means to them -- I sympathize with everyone's loss.

[hugs]

[gwynnega]

Thanks, Lori. She influenced me in so many ways.

::hugs::

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, no. "Dedications" from From an Atlas... is one of the first pieces of poetry I can remember that stilled me and moved me at once, one of the first times I can remember thinking about the sheer power of poetry and literature and feminist thought. This is so sad.

[gwynnega]

Yes, "Dedications" is really something.

I just can't wrap my mind around her being gone. She was such a huge presence.

[rose-lemberg.livejournal.com]

Oh, SHOOT.

[gwynnega]

I know! I can't believe it.

[http://users.livejournal.com/tesserae_/]

I'm so sorry - it's hard to lose someone who's had such an influence on you! But what a lovely epitaph for a poet, that her words changed your life...

[gwynnega]

Thank you. She loomed very large, that's for sure--and wow, could she write.

[livii.livejournal.com]

:( Sad news.

[gwynnega]

It certainly is.

[sovay]

I saw Rich read her poetry twice.

I only read her. I'm still sorry.

[gwynnega]

The world still needs her, that's for sure.

It occurred to me for the first time yesterday that, among other things, she wrote some awesome science poetry.

[stateless82.livejournal.com]

I wish I could have seen her.

There was one line, I think it's from What is Possible, that stuck to me so hard-" A clear night if the mind were clear If the mind were simple, if the mind were bare"

[gwynnega]

I don't remember much about seeing her read. Mostly I remember the audiences--all the rapt women listening to her--and the rooms of those now-gone women's bookstores where she read.