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I dreamed I called you on the telephone to say: Be kinder to yourself.
Adrienne Rich was a poet and essayist whose literary career spanned seven decades. Her work garnered numerous accolades, including the National Book Award for poetry, and helped establish her reputation as one of the founding mothers of the second-wave feminist movement. In her writing, Rich frequently spoke to what it means to be a woman and a mother in a patriarchal society. In her 1972 poem “For the Dead,” she wrote of dreaming about a phone call in which she asked the recipient to be kinder to themself. She followed this reflection by writing, “The waste of my love goes on this way / trying to save you from yourself.” While Rich may have had her late husband in mind as she wrote those bittersweet words, they’re a reminder to the living that we must extend the same compassion, empathy, and grace to ourselves as we do for others.
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