Synopses & Reviews
In the intimate address of "Axel Avákar," the black humor of "Quarto," and the underground journey of "Powers of Recuperation," compressed lyrics flash among larger scenarios where images, dialogues, blues, and song spiral into political visions. Adrienne Rich has said, "I believe almost everything I know, have come to understand, is somewhere in this book." from "Ballade of the Poverties"
Review
"Rich is one of the greatest American poets of the past half century...attested to both by the extraordinary power of her poems and by the laurels she's racked up.... the events of our blood-dimmed decade have afforded Rich a subject for some of her strongest material." Sara Marcus
Synopsis
from "Ballade of the Poverties There's the poverty of wages wired for the funeral you Can't get to the poverty of bodies lying unburie There's the poverty of labor offered silently on the cur The poverty of yard sale scrapings sprea And rejected the poverty of eviction, wedding bed out on stree Prince let me tell you who will never learn through word There are poverties and there are poverties"
Synopsis
from "Ballade of the Poverties"
There's the poverty of wages wired for the funeral you
Can't get to the poverty of bodies lying unburied
There's the poverty of labor offered silently on the curb
The poverty of yard sale scrapings spread
And rejected the poverty of eviction, wedding bed out on street
Prince let me tell you who will never learn through words
There are poverties and there are poverties.
Synopsis
Relationships--partings/reconciliations, solidarities/ruptures, trust/betrayal, exposure/withdrawal--are the deep fabric of this forceful work.
Synopsis
Relationships--partings/reconciliations, solidarities/ruptures, trust/betrayal, exposure/withdrawal--are the deep fabric of this forceful collection by renowned poet Rich.
About the Author
Widely read, widely anthologized, widely interviewed, and widely taught, Adrienne Rich (1929-2012) was for decades among the most influential writers of the feminist movement and one of the best-known American public intellectuals. She wrote two dozen volumes of poetry and more than a half-dozen of prose. Her constellation of honors includes a National Book Award for poetry for Tonight, No Poetry Will Serve, a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant in 1994, and a National Book Award for poetry in 1974 for Diving Into the Wreck. That volume, published in 1973, is considered her masterwork. Ms. Rich's other volumes of poetry include The Dream of a Common Language, A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far, An Atlas of the Difficult World, The School Among the Ruins, and Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth. Her prose includes the essay collections On Lies, Secrets, and Silence; Blood, Bread, and Poetry; an influential essay, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence," and the nonfiction book Of Woman Born, which examines the institution of motherhood as a socio-historic construct. In 2006, Rich was awarded the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters by the National Book Foundation. In 2010, she was honored with The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry's Lifetime Recognition Award.