Adrienne Rich: ‘What Kind of Times Are These?

Tania Sheko
Nov 7 · 1 min read
Grete Stern, Autorretrato (photo by bswise on Flickr)

There’s a place between two stands of trees where the grass grows uphill
and the old revolutionary road breaks off into shadows
near a meeting-house abandoned by the persecuted
who disappeared into those shadows.

I’ve walked there picking mushrooms at the edge of dread, but don’t be fooled
this isn’t a Russian poem, this is not somewhere else but here,
our country moving closer to its own truth and dread,
its own ways of making people disappear.

I won’t tell you where the place is, the dark mesh of the woods
meeting the unmarked strip of light —
ghost-ridden crossroads, leafmold paradise:
I know already who wants to buy it, sell it, make it disappear.

And I won’t tell you where it is, so why do I tell you
anything? Because you still listen, because in times like these
to have you listen at all, it’s necessary
to talk about trees.

Poem of the day

selected by Blair Mahoney for his English classes. Images found by Tania Sheko, most selected from the curated collections of Stephen Ellcock on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/stephen.ellcock and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/stephenellcock/.

Tania Sheko

Written by

Put me in a box and I'll crawl out. Teaching person who ended up in a library. https://about.me/tsheko

Poem of the day

selected by Blair Mahoney for his English classes. Images found by Tania Sheko, most selected from the curated collections of Stephen Ellcock on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/stephen.ellcock and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/stephenellcock/.

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