A lyric and challenging collection of essays by Adrienne Rich, one of America's most influential contemporary poets.

It is difficult

to get the news from poems

yet men die miserably every day

for lack

of what is found there

~ William Carlos Williams,

"Asphodel, That Greeny Flower"

This Williams quote opens Adrienne Rich's What is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics, and eloquently establishes the tone and subject of this mesmerizing work. In her prolific 56 year career as a poet, Rich has stood on the front lines in the on-going struggle between poetry and politics in North America, her frank and unapologetic voice commanding dialogue with contemporary culture on the issues of feminism, violence, war, racism, sexuality and the failings of modern political and economic fundamentalism.

Poetry and Society

In What is Found There, Rich explores the artist's relationship with his/her immediate location, nationally as well as historically. The second to last in this collection of essays illuminates the question that underlies the entire book, "What if?".

What is Found There finds a question mark at its core. What is the place of art, of poetry, in contemporary society? What does it mean to be a writer today? A poet? A citizen? What is the artist's responsibility towards history, towards politics, towards the world in which one lives?

Some of these timely questions are addressed by Rich's lyric and stunning prose. Some are answered by the voices of Rich's heros and peers, by dialogue with the lives and works of Muriel Rukeyser, Irena Klepfisz, June Jordan, Joy Harjo, Arturo, Pablo Neruda and many others. Some of the questions she poses are not so much answered as they are examined, dissected, rephrased, and examined again in a provocative dialectic that pulls the reader in and makes them question everything they had thought about poetry and the poetic voice.

The Writer and Responsibility

In Rich's passionate investigation of the nature of poetry and politics, What is Found There is a challenge to the reader, bidding them to see poetry as a living force, as a "necessity," and criticizing contemporary culture for its marginalization of poetry as a relevant art form.

She asks "What is it that allows many poets...to accept the view of poetry as a luxury rather than food for all - food for the the heart and senses, food of memory and hope?" It is a challenge to the poet to see themselves as "responsive, responsible...free to become artistically most complex, serious, and integrated when most aware of the great questions of her, of his, own time." Rich posits that "the question for a...poet is how to bear witness to a reality from which the public - and maybe part of the poet - wants, or is persuaded it wants, to turn away."

In her anthological discussion of modern and contemporary poetry, Adrienne Rich encourages the reader to embrace the immense power of poetry and its ability to respond to and engage with society and politics. She juxtaposes the crucial role of the poet with the timeless dynamism of language in such a way that poets will find a renewed awe of their craft, and non-poets will want to take up the pen.

What is Found There, which was first published in 1993, has been rereleased with the post-9/11 "Six meditations in place of a lecture." It is an arresting and sometimes chilling look at our times, simultaneously somber and exalting, prophetic and celebratory, anthological and autobiographical. What is Found There will inspire you, unsettle you, challenge you, excite you and ultimately leave you with a fresh respect for poetry and the boldness to keep asking the crucial questions.

What is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Place

By Adrienne Rich

Published by W. W. Norton & Company; Expanded edition (September 2003)

ISBN: 0393312461