Jackie Moore

“This is what I am: watching the spider
rebuild - "patiently", they say,

but I recognise in her
impatience - my own-

the passion to make and make again
where such unmaking reigns

the refusal to be a victim
we have lived with violence so long

Am I to go on saying
for myself, for her

This is my body,
take it and destroy it?”
― Adrienne Rich, The Dream of a Common Language

“My heart is moved by all I cannot save: so much has been destroyed I have to cast my lot with those who age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.”
― Adrienne Rich, The Dream of a Common Language: Poems 1974-1977

“Silence can be a plan
rigorously executed

the blueprint to a life

It is a presence
it has a history a form

Do not confuse it
with any kind of absence”
― Adrienne Rich, The Dream of a Common Language

“You’ve kissed my hair
to wake me. I dreamed you were a poem,
I say, a poem I wanted to show someone…
and I laugh and fall dreaming again
of the desire to show you to everyone I love,
to move openly together
in the pull of gravity”
― Adrienne Rich, The Dream of a Common Language