Adrienne Rich

Adrienne Rich (1929-2012 ) Born in Maryland she lived in New York and California. Adrienne was a highly regarded poet of her day and wrote over 24 volumes of poetry and a few books of prose as well, winning many awards. W.S. Merwin once said, "All her life she has been in love with the hope of telling utter truth, and her command of language from the first has been startlingly powerful.” Let’s start saying We.

In Those Years

In those years, people will say, we lost track

of the meaning of we, of you

we found ourselves

reduced to I

and the whole thing became

silly, ironic, terrible:

we were trying to live a personal life

and yes, that was the only life

we could bear witness to

But the great dark birds of history screamed and plunged

into our personal weather

They were headed somewhere else but their beaks and pinions drove

along the shore, through the rags of fog

where we stood, saying I

— Adrienne Rich