Staff Picks: Nonfiction

Adrienne Rich is one of the few poets whose poetry I've actually purchased, and by far the one I've read the most (I own three of her books!). So when I heard her name appear on the news in March I perked up. Poets don't usually get discussed unless it is National Poetry Month and that is in April. When I heard that instead of winning a prestigious award, she had passed away it saddened me, even as I was pleased that she was such a great poet that the media felt she deserved attention.

My favorite part of Rich's poems is that what she writes about are not platitudes of love, or lofty recriminations against society--although those thoughts can be found in her poems. She creates a scene for her philosophy to shine through, whether about feminism and relationships in "The Burning of Paper Instead of Children" ("The burning of a book arouses no sensation in me. I know it hurts to burn") or war in "You were telling a story about war it is our story" ("So we are thrown together so we are racked apart in a republic shivering on its glassy lip") or even the subject of poetry itself in "Letters to a Young Poet" From Midnight Salvage:

I think everyone deserves a little poetry in their lives. And if you have to choose one poet to read during National Poetry Month, I strongly urge you to read Adrienne Rich. We own many of her volumes of poetry, and you can also read 740 (!) of her poems in our 20th-Century American Poetry database (which is where I found the above poems). She's changed my life by her words.

Books to Enjoy