Printer-friendly versionSend by emailPDF version

March 29 was a sad day... We lost Adrienne Rich, one of the most inspiring poets we were blessed with. She gave our dreams a soul called social justice.

I couldn’t help but quickly script a medium between a lyric & an elegy for this beloved "shero" of our times. Adrienne Rich, one of the most influential and widely read writers of the feminist movement, took on sexism and racial oppression in her poems and prose.

Mama’s song flew
day after day through
crackling ceilings of the Harmattan clouds
sketched
in rainbow stitches of harmonic pleas
and fell back streaming TearLoads
of memory naked.

Singing for life
A l w a y s

Her notes went long ways
to the beats of our hearts
like the southern sun breaking
through the clouded sky
except the anguished spaces
in its ancient rhythms that said no one
but no one
can tame the melodies of griotics on
this scorched earth called home.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! Become a Friend of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!

* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.