Rich's collection of essays on poetry, WHAT IS FOUND THERE, is a superb tapestry of provocative, incisive, and relevant ruminations on poetry. What I really liked about this book is Rich's ability to connect poetry to one's everyday life, not describing it as something to be read by an elite, educated few.() Still, this book moved me and, as a student of poetry, I am inspired and hopeful that poetry and the discussion of it still thrives, contrary to many predictions.

Adrienne Rich is my current literary hero. And, no, her What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics isn't about feminism. It is about remaining human and maintaining artistic integrity in the face of the dehumanizing influences of our world. Rich calls into question W. H. Auden's oft quoted line "poetry does nothing," introduces readers to marginalized poets we ignore to our own loss, and demonstrates how poetry does considerably more than one might imagine. If I could afford it, copies of her book would go to everyone on my holiday gift list.

One of the best books on the place of poetry in the world. A beautifully written collection of prose that discusses the integral connection between poetry and politics. Rich shows the power and passion of the written word and the changes it is able to bring about. Passionately written and surprisingly easy to read.

The poems that are included in this book are particulary noteworthy for their angst. Rich weaves words into powerful images that portray her stuggle as a woman, a lover, and as a human being.

This collection of poems was written during the early years (1971-72) of her career as a poet. Although the imagery and voice are understandably not as clearly defined as in her recent work, this book is a must read for anyone who is interested in the development of poetic voice and style.

Adrienne Rich is one of America's best poets, and this is certainly her best collection. To use the word "angst" to describe these poems (as a previous reviewer did) is to diminish these works of volcanic beauty. This collection reads very well as an organic whole, but some of the best individual poems are "Incipience," "The Stranger," and, of course, the title poem. Common themes of awakening and discovery run through this book; I wish that every women would read these poems. Rich finally shakes free of the masculine poetic establishment and rejects male mythology as she writes:

A man is asleep in the next room/ We are his dreams/ We have the heads and breasts of women/ the bodes of birds of prey/ Sometimes we turn into silver serpents

Rich dives into the wreck and comes out transformed. Don't miss this opportunity to explore your own wreck.

Arvella has written a wonderful novel about a modern day teen trying to cope without his daddy by joining a gang of cobras. With a time travelling watch, he goes back to the days of slavery and lives a rough life. This "slave life" teaches him that being with family and learning are the 2 most positive experiences in life. The characters of Jordan and Uriah are well written. Many teens should read this book.

Trapped Between the Lash and the Gun was a great book! I really liked the way the author mixed history with the present in a realistic way. There was a lot of excitement in the book, and I could never put it down. I would definitely recommend reading it!

Adrienne Rich (b. 1929) has developed into one of the United States' best known poets. She won the National Book Award in 1974 and received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1994. Her book, "The Fact of a Doorframe" consists of a selection she has made from her first nine volumes of poetry written between 1950 and 1983.

I found it interesting to read this book in sequence (from cover to cover) to see the development of Ms Rich's themes as a poet. The early collections, through the mid-1960s, focus on descriptions of nature and on Rich's unhappy marriage experience. For the most part, the poetry is in traditional verse forms There is a concreteness and an accessiblity to them that will carry over into Ms. Rich's later work. I enjoyed the the early poem "At a Bach Concert" (several of Rich's poems feature her reflections on music) and her 1960 poem "Propsective Immigrants Please Note" This poem basically is a commentary on Emma Lazarus's poem, "The New Collussus" America itself, for Rich, makes no promises. She writes: "The door itself/makes no promises./It is only a door."

In the middle portions of the book, the poems become more overtly political and polemical in character. There are sharp criticisms of the War in Vietnam, of the Cold War, of the treatment of Native Americans in the United States, and of environmental desecration. This tendency in Ms Rich's poetry appears, as far as I can tell, somewhat before her focus on womens' issues and on same-sex sexual relationships. The poetry remains predominantly traditional in format although it becomes more experimental and stylistaclly free. It is didactic and clear to read.

The poetry begins to speak distinctly of womens' issues and of lesbian relationships in the collections of the late 1960s. The poems are sometimes sharp in tone, rejecting of men in many instances, and celebrate the commradeship and shared experiences of women and the tenderness that Rich finds in same-sex sexual experiences. The emphasis on mostly left political activism also continues. I found impressive Rich's long sonnet sequence "Twenty-One Love Poems" and the poem "A Woman Dead in her Forties" from the 1978 collection "A Dream of a Common Language. I also enjoyed her tribute to the Novelist Ellen Glasgow, in a late poem in the collection, "The Education of a Novelist." I enjoyed her poem on Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, much as I love that work (Ms Rich does not), and her two translations from the Yiddish poet Kadia Molodowsky. Ms Rich's poetic voice is not limited to feminist issues.

I think this is a good collection to get to understand the work of Ms. Rich. It works better than a poem or two in an anthology. In addition,as good poetry will do, the collection allows the reader to trace the development of the thoughts and feelings of some people in our country at a particular time in its poetry. Rich's poetry is a good bellweather of its age. The poetry has an earthiness an immediateness and an accesibility that will make it worth reading even for those who shy away from modern poetry.

This tremendous collection is a threat to cowardly white males everywhere. The incredible variety of utterance and the almost unbelievable courage shown by these poems testifies to the greatness of Adrienne Rich and the paucity of invention of typical white male poets in comparison. This is a truly important book.

I found Rich's poetry to be a bit sloggy in content, with her writing poems about how she doesn't like Beethoven's ninth (after Stravinsky and untold others had already condemned it) and those silly things like the 'floating sonnet'. Still, she is the best of a bad lot, making most other radical feminist lesbian poets look particularly starved for imagination. I managed to find someone to give this book away to. Hope she enjoys it.

Adrienne Rich has to be the most over-rated poet in history. Her work would be completely forgotten if it was judged as poetry, but because she has been adopted as the ideological idol of PC fanatics everywhere, she has become an untouchable icon of the present. Rich is best compared, intellectually, to the literary drudges of Soviet Russia, who extolled the glories of the people for the Communist Party. The diffrence, obviously, is that Rich is not embraced by the State, but by the buddy system that is academic feminism. This volume, complete with the breathless worship -- oh, sorry, critical scholarly attention -- of the editor, is a very fine presentation of what is, for all practical purposes, the work of a transient figure whose prominence is entirely dependent on the current PC state of the American academic establishment. If you wandered to this book because it claims to be poetry, why not skip it and try someone with some soul adn some real poetic talent?

Oct. 5: She is presented with prestigious Lannan Literary Award..for $100,000 for a job in writing,well.

Not merely a wonderful and incredibly courageous poet; oh, no. She is also a brilliant and challenging essayist. Most famous for "The Hermit's Scream", her other prose is absolutely startling in its originality and courage. This book is a threat to white males everywhere. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

At some point in our lives, we all wish to be someone else. The Cat Barked? is a wonderful book of a loving cat that desperately wants to be a dog. Throughout the book, readers learn how much fun it is to be a dog. When the cat's owner informs her that dogs have to do endless tricks, stay on leashes, and many more unpleasant things, she begins to think twice. In the end, she decides that being a cat might not be too bad.

Have you ever wished you were something you're not? You know, wished for curly hair when yours is straight, or visa versa--the old "the grass is always greener" problem. That's the situation that a little orange striped cat finds herself in "The Cat Barked."

"Dogs have all the fun!" proclaims the envious puss, as she details the reasons why: dogs go to the park, dogs catch crooks and they're always the heroes in movies and books.

"Silly old cat," exclaims the mop-headed little girl who owns her, as she points out that there is a downside to dogs and an upside to cats.

The rhyming text does a good job of capturing the futility and folly of coveting your neighbor's bark. But what really stand out are the cool collages by Monks, a fine arts major at England's Kingston University. She uses a combination of paint, pencil, fabric and photos from magazines to concoct her personable canines and felines. Another unique artistic style that budding artists will be itching to emulate.

Darby is a lovable, high spirited English Bull. He arrives by crate, special delivery to an unnamed family. The equally unnamed brother and sister try to train their anvil headed English Bull, (these dogs have anvil shaped heads) whose favorite activity appears to be chewing their cushions, photos and furniture. They make some success with their spirited dog and Darby learns to tinkle outside, bark, sit and stay on command. He just can't master that chewing problem, though.

Furious with the destructive behavior of the dog, the childrens' father insists that Darby be kept penned in his own fenced corner of the yard.

In an amazing, implausible series of events, the family home plunges into water, is immersed below (how did they all breathe) and Darby rescues them. Although the story left something to be desired, I loved the illustrations and was captivated by the English Bull. The illustrations alone were worth 5 stars.

Lisa Kopper introduced the world at large to Daisy, an English bull who imitates her owner's child and teaches her puppies as well as her owner's child how to get up to some serious mischief). This book will delight dog lovers, particularly those who love an anvil headed English bull.

I don't think much of the family's training methods in the book, since Bull Terriers should always be crate trained. However, the story is good, the art is up to Alexandra Day's usual marvellous standard, and Darby is a true BT, with all the loveable characteristics of the breed. My 4 year old son truely loved this book.

I have long been an admirer of Rich's beautiful poetry and ideas. Even though a male reader, I have found her company through her books over the years some of the best. However, in this volume, there is a real lack of vision. Rich comes accross at times like a parody of herself and her causes--instead of celebrating the victories, she acts as if she is hidden and on-the-run. This attitude hurts this otherwise interesting book. Her meditations on aging that appear throughout several poems in this volume are affecting and exciting, but there is still something missing. If you've never read Rich before, start with the works of the seventies; if you have read and loved Rich, then pick this up and settle in with a dear, if slightly crusty, slightly out-of-touch old friend.

This is a compendium of many artists, past and present, who have developed abstract and narrative animation over the past 80 years. It includes a complete sense of the history of the medium, and reviews the work of several animators from the 60s and 70s who were pushing the envelope at the time the book was published. The history is brief, covering the work of Fischinger, Lye, Ruttmann, Richter, Eggeling and Bute. The reviews of what were at the time Contemporary artists are also brief, but give a flavor of the variety in the medium. A bit dated with regard to its look at computer animation (but praiseworthy for its focus on mathematical rather than illusory applications of computer animation), this is still the best source book for experimental and abstract animation I have found.

I found this book in my local library and decided that I just had to have it! Where else does one search but at Amazon.com ... and there it was! I'm not a beginner in speaking French, but I found that there were plenty of opportunities to brush up on grammar points that I had half forgotten. I'll be recommending it to my students as a useful tool to have on hand.