For the Dead: Adrienne Rich (1929-2012)

In Memory of Adrienne Rich (born May 16, 1929, died March 28, 2012)

For The Dead

by Adrienne Rich

I dreamed I called you on the telephone
to say: Be kinder to yourself
but you were sick and would not answer

The waste of my love goes on this way
trying to save you from yourself

I have always wondered about the left-over
energy, the way water goes rushing down a hill
long after the rains have stopped

or the fire you want to go to bed from
but cannot leave, burning-down but not burnt-down
the red coals more extreme, more curious
in their flashing and dying
than you wish they were
sitting long after midnight


Feminist, poet and anti-war activist, Adrienne Rich passed away today. Her voice lives on, in her literary works and a litany of actions she had involved herself in, in her long and laudatory life. Advocate for woman's rights, ardent defender of the poor and the underprivileged, Rich's principles gave potency to her words that will continue to spring to life in her passionate prose and poetry.