Most critics focus primarily on Adrienne Rich's feminism; however, it describes itself differently. In an interview with Michael Klein his first interest is in politics: I came out first as a political poet, even before The Dream of a Common Language, under the taboo against so-called political poetry in the United States, which was comparable to the taboo against homosexuality. In other words, it wasn't done. And this is, of course, the only country in the world where this has been true. Go to Latin America, to the Middle East, to Asia, to Africa, to Europe, and you will find the political poet and poetry that addresses public affairs and public discourse, conflict, oppression and resistance. That poem is seen as normal. And he is honored (A Rich Life). Diving into the Wreck also strikes a more general note of individuality than feminism; in the words of Judith Lewin, "In Rich's 1972 poem "Diving into the Wreck," the lyrical voice is that of a diver who, as his body descends into the water, resists the distraction of underwater life to pursue his goal , both the exploration of a sunken ship and the exploration of self' (54). However, it is Rich's feminist side that sparks the most discussion. Monica Fagan presents Rich's belief in a kind of female bonding by stating that in her essay “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” Rich argues that whether or not girls and women desire genital physical contact with each other, friendship and camaraderie can blend with eroticism to form an intimate bond between them Rich suggests that this “lesbian continuum,” as she defines the bond, has “many more forms of primary intensity among women, including bonding against male tyranny, sharing a rich inner life,… paper…… in which bodily stimulation, incitement to discourse, the intensification of pleasures, the acquisition of particular knowledge and the strengthening of controls and resistances are associated with each other, according to some great strategies of power and (qtd. in Halperin 258). Rich also has concerns other than feminist issues, Piotr Gwiazda states that in an interview with Bill Moyers Rich comments that the poem that gives the title to his 1991 volume An Atlas of the Difficult World, “reflects on the condition. of my country that I wrote very consciously as a citizen poet, looking at the geography, the history, the people of my country." It was inspired by the 1991 Persian Gulf War, which on another occasion it presents as the Bush administration's first plan to divert people's attention from domestic "anger and despair".” (165).