Vox Populi
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Adrienne Rich: Power
Living in the earth-deposits of our history
Today a backhoe divulged out of a crumbling flank of earth
one bottle amber perfect a hundred-year-old
cure for fever or melancholy a tonic
for living on this earth in the winters of this climate.
Today I was reading about Marie Curie:
she must have known she suffered from radiation sickness
her body bombarded for years by the element
she had purified
It seems she denied to the end
the source of the cataracts on her eyes
the cracked and suppurating skin of her finger-ends
till she could no longer hold a test-tube or a pencil
She died a famous woman denying
her wounds
denying
her wounds came from the same source as her power.
~~~
To hear a recording of Adrienne Rich reading this poem, click here.
From Collected Poems: 1950-2012 (Norton, 2016). Included here for noncommercial educational purposes only.
Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) was an award-winning poet, influential essayist, radical feminist, and major public intellectual of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. She wrote two dozen volumes of poetry, including the National Book Award–winning Diving into the Wreck, and more than a half-dozen of prose.
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A powerful reminder, homage to all women who have achieved extraordinary things at great cost to themselves. At least Marie Curie received two Nobels. That’s in itself extraordinary. I love Adrienne Rich’s work.
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I do too, Rose Mary.
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yes, dear brave AR ever the heart breaking feminist…and us…knowing our wounds these times come from the same source as our failures, our acceptance of others’ power, our denial of power given to warriors who despise women. Given to those who have made and continue to make our wars.
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Yes!
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yes
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denyingher wounds came from the same source as her power.
What an extraordinary ending. An interesting hypothesis about both Marie Curie and Adrienne Rich – all of us, actually…
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Oh, yes. A powerful poem about the power of women.
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Any baseball team in need of a good closer should hire this poem.
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Oh yes. Closure makes the poem.
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That ending — it expands one beyond the poem like a great ending should.
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I agree. This is a poem that echoes through the decades…
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For one second I thought, is that a typo in my name? Love AR x (I picked James Fenton, the English poet, up at the airport once, and because of my name, and with a smile, he spent the whole car trip talking about Adrienne. Memories …)
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Similar to my reaction yesterday when I first read your name. Only in reverse🤣
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Extraordinary humanity (X2) posted here.
“I have risked my life for Art.”
—Vincent van Gogh
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Yes, extraordinary.
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