“The Freeing of” “the Wreck”

[Denise Levertov - book title, 1975] [Adrienne Rich - book title, 1973]

1.

"the sacred bats

hang in their chosen grove" [DL, Door in the Hive, 59]

"too long dead" [MP, poem title, Colors Passing Through Us, 2003, p. 20]

"I know I have been dreaming" [AR, Dream of a Common Language, 1978, p. 25]

"Of all my dead it's you

who come to me unfinished" [AR, Dream of a Common Language, 1978, p. 57]

"I dreamed you were a poem" [AR, Dream of a Common Language, 1978, p. 25]

"the bats hang dreaming

of an airy world" [AR, Diving into the Wreck, 1973, p. 42]

2.

bats, omens of birth

does finding you again and again

mean that's why they suddenly end -

to begin again?

3.

my fists are full of poems

why is my heart still empty

full empty?

stay with us still, i demand of

the dead their blessing

presence

i can handle almost anything

if only the mothers stay near

4.

Conjuring “Dream of a Common” “Sorrow Dance”

[Adrienne Rich, Title, 1978] [Denise Levertov, Title, 1989]

i can't remember how to speak

on my own, for grief

"in a world almost archaic

so precious by this time

that merely to step in pure water

or stare into clean air

is to feel a spasm of pain" [AR, Diving into the Wreck, 1973, p. 36]

5.

"the sacred bats

hang in their chosen grove" [DL, Door in the Hive, 59]

"too long dead" [MP, poem title, Colors Passing Through Us, 2003, p. 20]

"I know I have been dreaming" [AR, Dream of a Common Language, 1978, p. 25]

"Of all my dead it's you who come to me unfinished" [AR, Dream of a Common Language, 1978, p. 57]

"I dreamed you were a poem" [AR, Dream of a Common Language, 1978, p. 25]

"the bats hang dreaming" [AR, Diving into the Wreck, 1973, p. 42]

DL = Denise Levertov

AR = Adrienne Rich

MP = Marge Piercy