Amputated Moon

Adrienne Rich came here a few months ago courtesy of the Bankhead Visiting Writer’s Foundation and the University of Alabama. She spoke her lines of poetry to a packed theater in the middle of this mid-sized southern city. Even though the event was free to the public, I found it difficult to believe that there were that many people here who would devote an evening to hear a poet.

The performance was somewhat marred with sound problems that were mostly worked out after a couple of poems. She sat on stage and read a variety of her works, emphasizing the newer poems. Unfortunately, she did not read, “Diving into the Wreck”, the first poem that introduced me (and many others) to her. I am choosing to share parts of that poem here; the entire poem can be found at Poets.org.

Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich
(excerpts)

First having read the book of myths,
and loaded the camera,
and checked the edge of the knife-blade,
I put on
the body-armor of black rubber
the absurd flippers
the grave and awkward mask.
I am having to do this
not like Cousteau with his
assiduous team
aboard the sun-flooded schooner
but here alone.
. . .

I go down.
Rung after rung and still
the oxygen immerses me
the blue light
the clear atoms
of our human air.
I go down.
My flippers cripple me,
I crawl like an insect down the ladder
and there is no one
to tell me when the ocean
will begin.
. . . .

Adrienne Rich’s poem has always had the ability to transport me into the blue and black water with her. Her lines allow me to know that it would be okay to enter this space awkward and untutored. The rhythm of the poem is sometimes fluid like the environment she describes and sometimes broken, perhaps to reflect the difficulty and loneliness of the descent to the wreck.

The words written and spoken by Ms. Rich continue to have the ability to transport the reader/hearer into the difficult place, where breathing does not come easily and the tools that are carried may not be the ones most needed.

We are, I am, you are
by cowardice or courage
the one who find our way
back to this scene
carrying a knife, a camera
a book of myths
in which
our names do not appear.

I came across a video on YouTube by U2bianSynic that uses music, video images, and Adrienne Rich reciting this poem. I hope you enjoy it.