Prospective Immigrants Please Note
by Adrienne Rich
Either you will
go through this door
or you will not go through.
If you go through
there is always the risk
of remembering your name.
Things look at you doubly
and you must look back
and let them happen.
If you do not go through
it is possible
to live worthily
to maintain your attitudes
to hold your position
to die bravely
but much will blind you,
much will evade you,
at what cost who knows?
The door itself
makes no promises.
It is only a door.
This was by far my favorite of the Adrienne Rich selection I looked through. The idea of possibility really intrigues me, opening a new door to the future. While Rich’s poem can certainly relate to immigrants around the world, I think this forces us to see ourselves as immigrants in our everyday lives, especially since Rich often addresses the audience as you, it is as if she is speaking directly to me. I’m not sure how much this relates, but I literally just got off the phone with one of my friends who is on the verge of breaking up with her boyfriend that she has been with for a year and a half and it reminded me of this poem and how our choices, big and small, affect us forever. You may want to stay in a situation because it offers security and safety, but what if something bigger and better is just a door away? And what if there is a door, but nothing behind it? It reminds me of a television game show, where you have 3 doors and the money is behind only one of them.
So I guess in the end it is what you want, Rich does not tell us whether to go through or not–the choice is ours. Adam and Eve made a choice, our parents make choices, we make different choices every day–whether they are for good or bad is based on your perception. But why not take the chance? “The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all.”
