Miracle Ice Cream (Adrienne Rich)

I like the poetry of Adrienne Rich based on this one poem she wrote reinterpreting John Donne that always shows up in the Norton Anthologies I had to read for class. When I searched for her on Poets.org they listed three poems of hers in the sidebar. I simply had to pick the one titled Miracle Ice Cream. I mean, I often find that ice cream is miraculous.

I like how one thing leads to another in poetry. How an ice cream truck can lead to thoughts concerning life as a whole and the 'adultness' of life.

In a poem this short you have to notice words that are repeated or emphasized. Repeated things: "pearl", "of your heart", "miracles" . Like how a pearl is only created under constant irritation and distress, perhaps, N is saying that the good parts in life, like Miracle ice cream, can only be appreciated against a background of "news," "fast-food," and "ghostly revolutions." Or maybe N's saying that ice cream, a childish desire, is simple and can still be enjoyed in adulthood as long as one part of the heart remains untarnished by that trio of "news," "fast-food," and "ghostly revolutions".

Wasn't quite the happy, frivolous poem I thought I was in store for from the title. That I suppose is exactly how "the pearl...dissolves." Here, I was expecting a cute ice-cream treat and instead am presented with the pain and loss of magic that happens in the transition from childhood to adulthood in two neat stanzas.

Favorite line: "Early now the pearl of dusk dissolves."