Adrienne Rich

Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth

Poems: 2004–2006

A new volume from Adrienne Rich, recipient of the National Book Foundation’s 2006 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth is one of Adrienne Rich’s most unpredictable and evocative collections. In the folk/blues tradition behind “Rhyme,” in the incantatory pattern of “Behind the Motel,” in the voices from past and present in “Letters Censored, Shredded, Returned to Sender or Judged Unfit to Send,” in the dystopic scenes and intimate encounters of “Draft # 2006,” in the mysterious negotiations of the title poem, the tempos and moods of this book constantly vary. Here, Rich draws on the artistic means of a lifetime.

from “Calibrations”

Let’s not talk of healing yet
nor making love
nor of ingenious devices
replacing touch.
And this is not theoretical:
A poem with calipers to hold a heart
so it will want to go on beating.

Adrienne Rich’s most recent collection, School Among the Ruins, won the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is the recipient of a Lannan Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award and lives in northern California.