Adrienne Rich (1929-2012) was an American poet, essayist, teacher and activist.  She wrote especially about the oppression of women and lesbians.  Her books included A Change of the World, Atlas of the Difficult World and Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. She was heavily involved in the antiwar, civil rights and feminist movements.  Among her honors were a Yale Series of Younger Poets Award, two Guggenheim Fellowships and a National Book Award.

Rich wrote verse exploring lesbian sexuality.  They featured sensual and emotional imagery about the connections between women, and they intertwined the personal and the political.  Above all, they challenged societal expectations.

Adrienne Rich was of the foremost American poets.  Her extraordinary verse is unforgettable.

From “Twenty-One Love Poems (The Floating Poem, Unnumbered)”:

the live, insatiate dance of your nipples in my mouth –

Your touch on me, firm, protective, searching

me out, your strong tongue and slender fingers

reaching where I had been waiting years for you

in my rose-wet cave-whatever happens, this is.

S. Gray

September 2025