Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Bruce Beaver

POEMS FOR ADRIENNE RICH (I)

POEMS FOR ADRIENNE RICH (I)

POEMS FOR ADRIENNE RICH (I)

Wonderful woman, proud to be a person
in this day and age of swapped sexes.
To feel love for one’s own kind
(sex is just an arbitrary accident) —
always clinical the other,
the open-hearted surgery of love
between mere opposites in most things malleable,
a never quite melding agreement
to disagree on most things in life.
And yet you were friends with what
sounds like a “perfect partner” for
half of your life; a “good match”, productive
for both of you, even redolent
with healthy children. You’ve had
the best and worst of all possible worlds:
wife, mother, poet, lover, a piercing
intellect and a truly inventive
art. I can only envy in a friendly way
your giftedness. I heard you interviewed
on that poor rat-bag of usually second-rate
opinions the radio by a talented
journalist on lisping leave from the hell
of Zagreb. Your quiet, calm and yes
charming replies sent me after your books
when I had previously thought you
not only immune from but averse to
all men. Not quite, it seems.
You’ll talk with some who’ll listen to
their dreams and yours. O stay alive
good lady. We all have need of you
and every book of fine poems
from the fecund fingers of your writing hand.
Close

POEMS FOR ADRIENNE RICH (I)

Wonderful woman, proud to be a person
in this day and age of swapped sexes.
To feel love for one’s own kind
(sex is just an arbitrary accident) —
always clinical the other,
the open-hearted surgery of love
between mere opposites in most things malleable,
a never quite melding agreement
to disagree on most things in life.
And yet you were friends with what
sounds like a “perfect partner” for
half of your life; a “good match”, productive
for both of you, even redolent
with healthy children. You’ve had
the best and worst of all possible worlds:
wife, mother, poet, lover, a piercing
intellect and a truly inventive
art. I can only envy in a friendly way
your giftedness. I heard you interviewed
on that poor rat-bag of usually second-rate
opinions the radio by a talented
journalist on lisping leave from the hell
of Zagreb. Your quiet, calm and yes
charming replies sent me after your books
when I had previously thought you
not only immune from but averse to
all men. Not quite, it seems.
You’ll talk with some who’ll listen to
their dreams and yours. O stay alive
good lady. We all have need of you
and every book of fine poems
from the fecund fingers of your writing hand.

POEMS FOR ADRIENNE RICH (I)

Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
Lira fonds
Versopolis
J.E. Jurriaanse
Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
Elise Mathilde Fonds
Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
Veerhuis
VDM
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère