I am not always sure what I make of Adrienne Rich’s poetry, but if she gave me nothing else but the phrase ‘the dream of a common language’ it would have been enough. May she rest in peace.
If from time to time I envy
the pure annunciations to the eye
the visio beatifica
if from time to time I long to turn
like the Eleusinian hierophant
holding up a simple ear of grain
for return to the concrete and everlasting world
what in fact I keep choosing
are these words, these whispers, conversations
from which time after time the truth breaks moist and green.
from “Cartographies of Silence”
The Dream of a Common Language
