For the Dead - Adrienne Rich

[http://users.livejournal.com/_honeyspider/]

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

Comments

[midwstrrnr.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting this.

[karmaisspecial.livejournal.com]

I'm reading Adrienne Rich for the first time this semester. She's *amazing*. Thanks for sharing. :)

[morriganviviane.livejournal.com]

I love Adrienne Rich, and this poem is one of my favorites of hers.