Tonight No Poetry Will Serve

October 15, 2010

Thankfully, the more strident feminist tone that can mar some of Rich's poetry is muted in her latest collection. Her lesbianism isn't so much stated as implied, which gives several of the strongest poems a subtle eroticism. It also allows Rich's mastery of the evocative metaphor to shine through her poetry. Take the title poem, a warm though understated love poem, which works by innuendo to a shocking ending and is as compelling as any in Rich's oeuvre. Only a few of the poems, like the antiwar "Reading the Iliad...," become shrill. Winner of numerous awards, including the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, Rich uses these latest poems to look back on past events and relationships--both actual and imagined. VERDICT One can sense Rich's nostalgia for her youth and apprehension at the frailty of old age. But there's no whining here. Mostly, these are poems of an aging poet (Rich was born in 1929) who is still gifted with sight, insight, and the poetic gifts necessary to express both.--Diane Scharper, Towson Univ., MD

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2011
Rich writes, I believe almost everything I know, have come to understand, is somewhere in this book. The critically acclaimed poet of 30 books of poetry and prose fills her latest retrospective collection with poems that express an intimate understanding of life, death, and resilience with recurring images of ice, blood, and bodies. The opening poem, Waiting for Rain, for Music, dives in with waiting for tomorrow / long after tomorrow / shouldve come. This motif of regret builds to resignation in From Sickbed Shores, the books central poem, which asks, what is it anyway to exist as / matter to / matter? While writing of chronic illness, Rich offers wordplay redolent of her caustic wit and black humor and reminiscent of Plath. Ballade of the Poverties, a Pr'vert-like poem deviating in style from the books short-line, at times difficult, poems, speaks to timeless themes of injustice and ignorance and ends with the narrator offering the reader a mirror. Richs poetry itself is a mirror, reflecting the truths about humanity this discerning poet has come to understand.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)