This is my mantra.
Generally, the poem is interpreted as a feminist call for women to rediscover their authentic selves outside the roles given them by a largely patriarchal society.

However, I put it in   more...the context of my own life, as someone who basically lives in a reflective stance, always willing to mine the past for treasures, while choosing not to live there.

While I appreciate and understand Rich's intent, I don't see the meaning as being valuable only to women.

It's for anyone who's not afraid of the darkness, and can see the book of myths for what it is.

<b>Diving Into The Wreck</b>
by Adrienne Rich

<i>First having read the book of myths,
and loaded the camera,
and checked the edge of the knife-blade,
I put on
the body-armor of black rubber
the absurd flippers
the grave and awkward mask.
I am having to do this
not like Cousteau with his
assiduous team
aboard the sun-flooded schooner
but here alone.

There is a ladder.
The ladder is always there
hanging innocently
close to the side of the schooner.
We know what it is for,
we who have used it.
Otherwise
it is a piece of maritime floss
some sundry equipment.

I go down.
Rung after rung and still
the oxygen immerses me
the blue light
the clear atoms
of our human air.
I go down.
My flippers cripple me,
I crawl like an insect down the ladder
and there is no one
to tell me when the ocean
will begin.

First the air is blue and then
it is bluer and then green and then
black I am blacking out and yet
my mask is powerful
it pumps my blood with power
the sea is another story
the sea is not a question of power
I have to learn alone
to turn my body without force
in the deep element.

And now: it is easy to forget
what I came for
among so many who have always
lived here
swaying their crenellated fans
between the reefs
and besides
you breathe differently down here.

I came to explore the wreck.
The words are purposes.
The words are maps.
I came to see the damage that was done
and the treasures that prevail.
I stroke the beam of my lamp
slowly along the flank
of something more permanent
than fish or weed

the thing I came for:
the wreck and not the story of the wreck
the thing itself and not the myth
the drowned face always staring
toward the sun
the evidence of damage
worn by salt and away into this threadbare beauty
the ribs of the disaster
curving their assertion
among the tentative haunters.

This is the place.
And I am here, the mermaid whose dark hair
streams black, the merman in his armored body.
We circle silently
about the wreck
we dive into the hold.
I am she: I am he

whose drowned face sleeps with open eyes
whose breasts still bear the stress
whose silver, copper, vermeil cargo lies
obscurely inside barrels
half-wedged and left to rot
we are the half-destroyed instruments
that once held to a course
the water-eaten log
the fouled compass

We are, I am, you are
by cowardice or courage
the one who find our way
back to this scene
carrying a knife, a camera
a book of myths
in which
our names do not appear.</i>  less

Series of underwater sculptures located in Grenada, West Indies. All designed to create an artifical reef.
visit www.underwatersculpture.com for full details

Tired of the cold weather? It is time to warm up! Lets go Kayaking!

For more information about Extreme Mike, please visit www.extrememike.com.

Underwater photography has been a hobby of mine since I was 12 years old. This slide show contains pictures I took in 2004, when I visited Western Samoa for part of my medical schooling. I had little   more...free time, but when I did, I was swimming whenever I had the chance.

The eel you see in one of the images got mad at my following it and ate one of my macro lenses, lol.

Music is "Mystic Whales," by Steven Wiseman  less

Hawaii Rest and Relaxation (R/R)

Amazing footage of the usually-shy eels swimming right up to divers.

thank you

This has got to be one of the best editings I have done yet! It had me laughing in stiches! Enjoy a good laugh! Jesse :)

Yes...bathtub diving.

This is an abstract 4 me 2 post but this video is a little personal(Old training days for something else(These suits used to be classified back in the day!)....Plus, Who wouldn't want to do this!

You`ll never beleive your eyes! An amazing cat loves scuba diving

Some of the work I do off-shore.

Lets take a trip down with the Manta Rays,Filmed off Flores in Indonesia

Yeah, the title just about covers it.

Crazy drunken Canadians!!!

Cat scuba dives. And yours won't even get near the toilet!

Scuba diving with dolphins at Grand Bahama Island. A most unique experience for scuba divers.

Sharks and dolphins are thought to be deadly enemies but at Ranriroa atoll, two hours flight north of Tahiti, they share one of the world's most dynamic habitat. Dolphins play in the standing waves created   more...when the current rushing out of the lagoon meet the waves coming in from the sea. The dolphins use the waves to sling themselves into huge leaps.  less

Lets take a dive to Rainbow Valley
Filmed in Bimini in the Bahamas

A cool prank , while a person diving in swimmin pool

...

The point is to dive INTO the water, not into the board.

This rally car flies off a cliff and keeps on going. Who says they don't build 'em like they used to?