Kundalini Splendor

Either you will

Either you will
go through this door
or you will not go through.

If you go through
there is always the risk
of remembering your name.

Things look at you doubly
and you must look back
and let them happen.

If you do not go through
it is possible
to live worthily

to maintain your attitudes
to hold your position
to die bravely

but much will blind you
much will evade you,
at what cost, who knows?

The door itself
makes no promises
it is only a door.

Adrienne Rich

Adrienne Rich was one of the most gifted and beloved poets of our time.  I was especially interested in her because she was born almost in the same year I was.  I watched her grow in her poetry and her life.  At first, she wrote as a committed heterosexual, and her poems gave no offense to patriarchal establishment.  She was published and acclaimed when she was quite young, and won prestigious prizes.  Then she came out as a lesbian, and the critics no longer endorsed her work. Her book "Twenty-One Love Poems" is a beautiful tribute to her long time partner Michelle Cliff.  It appeared at a time when being this public about your sexual preference was a bold act of defiance.  She also wrote "Diving into the Wreck," now considered a classic. In later years she explored her Jewish heritage and her concern for America.

I once met her at a conference and was extremely honored to be in her presence.