Adrienne Rich :: 1929 - 2012

I loved her.

The Fact of a Doorframe sits on my bookshelf.

It travelled across the ocean with me.

Perhaps, so that when I heard that she had died,

I could bury myself in it and re-read all my favorites.

She captures the essence of a women

when there is no choice in who you can become.

Your path is already laid out, decided.

No deviations allowed.

Life has changed since she was first published in 1951.

But I wouldn't mind if it changed a little bit more.

A fitting tribute to her memory.

The Fact of a Doorframe

means there is something to hold

onto with both hands

while slowly thrusting my forehead against the wood

and taking it away

one of the oldest motions of suffering

as Makeba sings

a courage-song for warriors

music is suffering made powerful

I think of the story

of the goose-girl who passed through the high gate

where the head of her favorite mare

was nailed to the arch

and in a human voice

If she could see thee now, thy mother's heart would break

said the head

of Falada

Now, again, poetry,

violent, arcane, common,

hewn of the commonest living substance

into archway, portal, frame

I grasp for you, your bloodstained splinters, your

ancient and stubborn poise

-- as the earth trembles --

burning out from the grain