In those years, people will say, we lost track 

of the meaning of we, of you 

we found ourselves 

reduced to I 

and the whole thing became 

silly, ironic, terrible: 

we were trying to live a personal life 

and, yes, that was the only life 

we could bear witness to 


But the great dark birds of history screamed and plunged 

into our personal weather 

They were headed somewhere else but their beaks and pinions drove along the shore, through rages of fog 

where we stood, saying I

Adrienne Rich