"There is the story of the mind's temperature neither cold nor celibate."
— Rich, Adrienne (1929-2012)
Author
Work Title
Date
2002
Metaphor
"There is the story of the mind's
temperature neither cold nor celibate."
Metaphor in Context
The story of the man driving
600 miles to be with a friend in another country seeming
easy when leaving but afterward
writing in a letter difficult truths
Of the friend watching him leave remembering
the story of her body
with his once and the stories of their children
made with other people and how his mind went on
pressing hers like a body
There is the story of the mind's
temperature neither cold nor celibate
Ardent The story of
not one thing only.
(p. 33)
600 miles to be with a friend in another country seeming
easy when leaving but afterward
writing in a letter difficult truths
Of the friend watching him leave remembering
the story of her body
with his once and the stories of their children
made with other people and how his mind went on
pressing hers like a body
There is the story of the mind's
temperature neither cold nor celibate
Ardent The story of
not one thing only.
(p. 33)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Reprinted in The School Among the Ruins: Poems, 2000-2004 (New York: W. W. Norton, 2004).
Date of Entry
03/29/2012
