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Günün Geç Vakitleri
Uluslararası yazın çevrelerince 20. yüzyılın “Bilimkurguya edebiyat saygınlığı kazandıran” seçkin yazarları arasında ilk sıralarda anılan Ursula K. Le Guin; edebiyat yaşamının başından beri şiire özel bir yer ayırmış, şiirlerini belirli aralıklarla, bağımsız bütünler ve yer yer de özel seçkiler vasıtasıyla okura sunmuştur.
Roman ve öykülerinde kurduğu benzersiz dili derinden akan bir su gibi izleyip belirlemiş olan Le Guin şiirinin son örnekleri Late in the Day adıyla 2016 yılında yayımlanmıştı. Günün Geç Vakitleri, bu şiir toplamını Le Guin’in kendi yazmış olduğu önsöz, sunuş, sonsöz ve ek metinlerle birlikte Türkçeye aktarıyor: İnsancıllığın ölümünün vahşi törenlerle kutsandığı bir çağda kah eşyanın, kah mitolojik kahramanların, kah doğanın insancıllığına sığınan, okuyana hem son hem sonsuzluk hissini aynı kuvvette duyuran ebedi bir zaman’ın şiirleri...
Roman ve öykülerinde kurduğu benzersiz dili derinden akan bir su gibi izleyip belirlemiş olan Le Guin şiirinin son örnekleri Late in the Day adıyla 2016 yılında yayımlanmıştı. Günün Geç Vakitleri, bu şiir toplamını Le Guin’in kendi yazmış olduğu önsöz, sunuş, sonsöz ve ek metinlerle birlikte Türkçeye aktarıyor: İnsancıllığın ölümünün vahşi törenlerle kutsandığı bir çağda kah eşyanın, kah mitolojik kahramanların, kah doğanın insancıllığına sığınan, okuyana hem son hem sonsuzluk hissini aynı kuvvette duyuran ebedi bir zaman’ın şiirleri...
128 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2015
97 people are currently reading
1404 people want to read
About the author
Ursula K. Le Guin
1,045 books30.2k followersUrsula K. Le Guin published twenty-two novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. She lived in Portland, Oregon.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 90 reviews
February 7, 2017
Ursula Le Guin has written some phenomenal books over the years. Whether it is fantasy or science fiction, she always masters the genre. She’s a prolific novelist, and very much deserves her popularity. And here she has delved into the world of poetry. To say I was excited about this book is to evoke a huge understatement.
She’s been writing this poetry for five years, and it shows in the variety she displays here. She does not adhere to a particular form or style, but instead branches out across many. She gives her reasoning in a short essay at the end of the book: she does not what to be restricted by a particular rhyme scheme or meter, but instead wants to create poetry that works however it may come to work. So she plays around and experiments with the ultimate result of an eclectic variety of poems.
The poems vary from accounts of real world things such as New Year’s Day and kitchen spoons to those that draw on elements of classicism and fantasy. I enjoyed in particular the four line poems that did wonders at evoking a single emotion or place. They were strong and visceral. The one that stood out to me though in the entire collection was one called “Dead Languages.” I’ve quoted the first stanza of it here:
“Dreadful, this death, dragging
so many lives and lively minds along
after it into unmeaning,
endless, imbecile silence.”
How ominous it sounds and desolute, empty almost. The language of a people has died, and with it has come woe and misery. What is left of the culture has no meaning; it has only silence. This is never ending because when it has been undone it cannot be remade as it once was. With language comes meaning, a way of viewing the world and a way of transporting culture and history. Kill a man’s language, and you kill the man’s past; thus, what is left is the imbecile. Whatever the language once was will never be understood; hence, the fall into unmeaning silences. Le Guin ends with the lines:
“to speak the tongues unspoken
and hear a human music otherwise unheard.”
The word music is the key. For culture rich in oral tradition, the language literally held so much of what constituted the people. For it to be unspoken is for it to be lost entirely. This poem has particular relevance in a postcolonial word where so much of traditional African culture was destroyed by the actions of the West. For me this poem reads like a lament, a statement of grief of what the world has lost and will never get back.
So this is just one of many poems in here. It’s a highly creative book, one that proves that Le Guin can write poetry just as well as she can prose. I would recommend this to fans of her novels, and also for those who want to read a little bit of contemporary poetry. There are many current themes explored in here, all of which are embellished by a modern sounding voice.
She’s been writing this poetry for five years, and it shows in the variety she displays here. She does not adhere to a particular form or style, but instead branches out across many. She gives her reasoning in a short essay at the end of the book: she does not what to be restricted by a particular rhyme scheme or meter, but instead wants to create poetry that works however it may come to work. So she plays around and experiments with the ultimate result of an eclectic variety of poems.
The poems vary from accounts of real world things such as New Year’s Day and kitchen spoons to those that draw on elements of classicism and fantasy. I enjoyed in particular the four line poems that did wonders at evoking a single emotion or place. They were strong and visceral. The one that stood out to me though in the entire collection was one called “Dead Languages.” I’ve quoted the first stanza of it here:
“Dreadful, this death, dragging
so many lives and lively minds along
after it into unmeaning,
endless, imbecile silence.”
How ominous it sounds and desolute, empty almost. The language of a people has died, and with it has come woe and misery. What is left of the culture has no meaning; it has only silence. This is never ending because when it has been undone it cannot be remade as it once was. With language comes meaning, a way of viewing the world and a way of transporting culture and history. Kill a man’s language, and you kill the man’s past; thus, what is left is the imbecile. Whatever the language once was will never be understood; hence, the fall into unmeaning silences. Le Guin ends with the lines:
“to speak the tongues unspoken
and hear a human music otherwise unheard.”
The word music is the key. For culture rich in oral tradition, the language literally held so much of what constituted the people. For it to be unspoken is for it to be lost entirely. This poem has particular relevance in a postcolonial word where so much of traditional African culture was destroyed by the actions of the West. For me this poem reads like a lament, a statement of grief of what the world has lost and will never get back.
So this is just one of many poems in here. It’s a highly creative book, one that proves that Le Guin can write poetry just as well as she can prose. I would recommend this to fans of her novels, and also for those who want to read a little bit of contemporary poetry. There are many current themes explored in here, all of which are embellished by a modern sounding voice.
April 19, 2017
3.5 stars.
I was definitely curious about poetry by Ursula K. Le Guin, one of my favorite speculative fiction writers. I can see her love of nature, particularly the landscape of the northwest, in her poems, but I see very few traces of the ingredients I love so much about her in other arenas - her intelligence in world-building, her strength and unflinching protest in recent speeches. These poems are... nice. But they are often in overly structured stanzas, with rhymes. She explains why there is more creativity in restricted form in her afterword, but I kept wishing for more of her wondrous brain inside these structures. I hope as she writes more poetry, she will find more of her own voice in this form as well. I am not saying I need genderfluid aliens, but I did expect more than pretty nature scenes.
Still, I did enjoy many of the poems, partly because I know her landscapes, and partly because some of them are starting to hint at what I came to them to find.
Constellating
"...love flings the unimaginable line
that marries fire to fire."
Hymn to Aphrodite
"...you wear
the fiery tiara of the volcanoes...
Pity your fearful, foolish children...."
The Old Mad Queen
"...You are not mine
and I do not name you.
I tear up the map
of the world of you
that had your rivers
in the wrong places...."
Dead Languages
"...The more ways there are to say Mother
the wiser the world is...."
Whiteness
"...Plugged in their ears white noise
drowns an ancient voice
murmuring to bless
darkness."
I was definitely curious about poetry by Ursula K. Le Guin, one of my favorite speculative fiction writers. I can see her love of nature, particularly the landscape of the northwest, in her poems, but I see very few traces of the ingredients I love so much about her in other arenas - her intelligence in world-building, her strength and unflinching protest in recent speeches. These poems are... nice. But they are often in overly structured stanzas, with rhymes. She explains why there is more creativity in restricted form in her afterword, but I kept wishing for more of her wondrous brain inside these structures. I hope as she writes more poetry, she will find more of her own voice in this form as well. I am not saying I need genderfluid aliens, but I did expect more than pretty nature scenes.
Still, I did enjoy many of the poems, partly because I know her landscapes, and partly because some of them are starting to hint at what I came to them to find.
Constellating
"...love flings the unimaginable line
that marries fire to fire."
Hymn to Aphrodite
"...you wear
the fiery tiara of the volcanoes...
Pity your fearful, foolish children...."
The Old Mad Queen
"...You are not mine
and I do not name you.
I tear up the map
of the world of you
that had your rivers
in the wrong places...."
Dead Languages
"...The more ways there are to say Mother
the wiser the world is...."
Whiteness
"...Plugged in their ears white noise
drowns an ancient voice
murmuring to bless
darkness."
December 29, 2015
I'm stunned by this book. I wanted to read it slowly, as anything by UKL demands, and in fact I read most of the poems twice before moving on. But nevertheless, I still finished it in record time. I just couldn't stop reading.
These poems are beautiful and atmospheric. LeGuin's firm yet gentle style imbued with Taoism is for the heart as well as the head.
I plan to let this sink in a bit and read it again and then again and again. One day I will review it on Amazing Stories even though it's not truly genre poetry.
I forgot to mention the essays and lectures within in my original review above. There's a talk UKL gave, which serves as an introduction, in which she talks about how interconnected we are - to the natural world as well as to each other. At the end of the book she includes some thoughts on form (in poetry). Many of the poems are free form or something not quite, but she has also dabbled in some traditional forms (sonnets and the like) and has something interesting to say to poets about adhering to a form. Her acceptance speech of the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters is also included.
These poems are beautiful and atmospheric. LeGuin's firm yet gentle style imbued with Taoism is for the heart as well as the head.
I plan to let this sink in a bit and read it again and then again and again. One day I will review it on Amazing Stories even though it's not truly genre poetry.
I forgot to mention the essays and lectures within in my original review above. There's a talk UKL gave, which serves as an introduction, in which she talks about how interconnected we are - to the natural world as well as to each other. At the end of the book she includes some thoughts on form (in poetry). Many of the poems are free form or something not quite, but she has also dabbled in some traditional forms (sonnets and the like) and has something interesting to say to poets about adhering to a form. Her acceptance speech of the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters is also included.
dnf
February 20, 2025Çeviride mi sorun var orijinal dilinde bakmadım ama sevmedim şiirleri. Yazarın doğadaki her şeye atfettiği aşırı kutsallık, yoğun mistisizm; havan eline, kayalara şiir yazması vs. gülünç ve zorlama geldi bana. Ursula K. Le Guin'in doğayı ve hayatı korumaya çalışması takdir edilesi ama şiirleri etkileyici değil. Eksik bir şeyler var.
November 30, 2020
I’ve always found that Ursula LeGuin’s prose has a spare, beautiful quality that gives me a feeling of waiting for something wonderful. This book of poetry has that same quality.
April 24, 2021
"..In the name for Home lie whole nations.
The unused word may be the useful one.
Old nouns are in no hurry.
Old verbs are very patient.
The water of life is learning.
May elders ever tell the mythic origins
in the almost-lost old language
to children cheated of knowledge
of their own holy inheritance.
May myopic scholars scowl
forever at fragments of inscription,
so that the young may yawn
long over grim grammars, learning
to speak the tongues unspoken
and hear a human music otherwise unheard."
The unused word may be the useful one.
Old nouns are in no hurry.
Old verbs are very patient.
The water of life is learning.
May elders ever tell the mythic origins
in the almost-lost old language
to children cheated of knowledge
of their own holy inheritance.
May myopic scholars scowl
forever at fragments of inscription,
so that the young may yawn
long over grim grammars, learning
to speak the tongues unspoken
and hear a human music otherwise unheard."
September 11, 2025
Being such a fan of Ursula K. Le Guin’s novels, I was curious to read her poetry. Ironically, I’ve come away from this collection - having read her Foreword, Afterword, and the Postscript (a speech given in acceptance of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2014) - with an even deeper appreciation for her prose.
There were poems I loved: in order of appearance, Kitchen Spoons, Earthenware, all of Four Lines, October, Between, Disremembering, Crossing the Cascades, and 2014: A Hymn. I’d read anything she wrote, and at least enjoy it. But nothing blows me away like her prose, and to illustrate, I’ll end with a quote from the aforementioned acceptance speech.
“Books aren't just commodities; the profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable, but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.”
There were poems I loved: in order of appearance, Kitchen Spoons, Earthenware, all of Four Lines, October, Between, Disremembering, Crossing the Cascades, and 2014: A Hymn. I’d read anything she wrote, and at least enjoy it. But nothing blows me away like her prose, and to illustrate, I’ll end with a quote from the aforementioned acceptance speech.
“Books aren't just commodities; the profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable, but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.”
April 1, 2016
Beautiful! Moves me the way Mary Oliver moves me, by being deeply attentive to the beauty of ordinary things.
SORROWSONG
Come with me my sorrow
come away with me
Where the road grows narrow
westward to the sea
where the waters darken
slow as evening falls
where no winds waken
and no voice calls
SORROWSONG
Come with me my sorrow
come away with me
Where the road grows narrow
westward to the sea
where the waters darken
slow as evening falls
where no winds waken
and no voice calls
September 9, 2021
Mülksüzler kitabıyla tanıdığım Ursula K. Le Guin'in şiir kitabı.
yanlış anlamadıysam, son zamanlarında yazdıkları şiirlerden oluşuyor.
Çocuksu bir tarafları var bu şiirlerin ve imgeler, nesneler ile bir bütün oluyor.
Mekanları canlandırıyor, duygu katıyor onlara.
İyi ki geçtin bu dünyadan Ursula.
Sevgi ve saygıyla.
yanlış anlamadıysam, son zamanlarında yazdıkları şiirlerden oluşuyor.
Çocuksu bir tarafları var bu şiirlerin ve imgeler, nesneler ile bir bütün oluyor.
Mekanları canlandırıyor, duygu katıyor onlara.
İyi ki geçtin bu dünyadan Ursula.
Sevgi ve saygıyla.
September 3, 2023
pretty damn solid, but not what i was expecting. i'm interested in reading le guin's prose.
November 19, 2023
More accurate rating: 8.5/10.
LeGuin's writing – whether in prose or verse form apparently – just soothes my soul. No, I didn't love every single poem in this collection, but enough of them touched my sense of aesthetics, heart and/or soul. The collection also features a foreword to the collection, an afterword in which LeGuin shares her understanding of, and preferences with regards to poetry, and a speech she gave in 2014: I loved all of them. Such a beautiful literary voice. 💜
LeGuin's writing – whether in prose or verse form apparently – just soothes my soul. No, I didn't love every single poem in this collection, but enough of them touched my sense of aesthetics, heart and/or soul. The collection also features a foreword to the collection, an afterword in which LeGuin shares her understanding of, and preferences with regards to poetry, and a speech she gave in 2014: I loved all of them. Such a beautiful literary voice. 💜
July 4, 2023
Ursula Le Guin’den şiir okuma deneyimi, kendisini dünyaca ünlü yapan bilimkurgu eserlerine maruz kalmaktan çok başka. Ölmeden önce yayınlanan bu son şiirleri, kocaman dünyalar kuran, serilerce devam eden eserlerinin aksine, günlük obje ve olaylar üzerine.
Harika çeviriyi yapan Can Gürses’in önsözünde bahsettiği gibi, zaman kavramını objeler üzerinden irdelemesi ve kendi ölümlülüğü ile yüzleşmesine şahit oluyorsunuz. Bunu yaparken çatışmacı değil, kabullenici bir tavrı var. 80’li yaşlarına gelmiş ve evreni “anlamış” birinin bilgeliği ile yaklaşıyor zamana.
Tekrar harikalığına dikkat çekmek istediğim çeviri sayesinde biçimini de koruyan, alışageldiğimiz gibi serbest vezinle yazılmamış şiirlerin ritimleri de, uzunlukları da normalde şiir okumaktan imtina eden kişilere şiiri sevdirir.
Nefes ala ala okunacak harika bir derleme.
Harika çeviriyi yapan Can Gürses’in önsözünde bahsettiği gibi, zaman kavramını objeler üzerinden irdelemesi ve kendi ölümlülüğü ile yüzleşmesine şahit oluyorsunuz. Bunu yaparken çatışmacı değil, kabullenici bir tavrı var. 80’li yaşlarına gelmiş ve evreni “anlamış” birinin bilgeliği ile yaklaşıyor zamana.
Tekrar harikalığına dikkat çekmek istediğim çeviri sayesinde biçimini de koruyan, alışageldiğimiz gibi serbest vezinle yazılmamış şiirlerin ritimleri de, uzunlukları da normalde şiir okumaktan imtina eden kişilere şiiri sevdirir.
Nefes ala ala okunacak harika bir derleme.
February 10, 2019
Decent collection. Being that her poetry is often self-reflective, Le Guin talks a lot here about her search for ancient and hidden wisdom. This is really good when it's good, and a bit tedious when it's not. But hey, she's earned the right to be a little bit meta after such a long and rich career. Most of our least favorite poems in this collection were the re-imaginings of ancient mythology, which seem somehow to miss the point of the original stories' richness. My favorite poems:
Western Outlaws
The Canada Lynx
In Ashland
Geology of the Northwest Coast
Hymn to Aphrodite
Messages
Written in the Dark
Song
My Job
Western Outlaws
The Canada Lynx
In Ashland
Geology of the Northwest Coast
Hymn to Aphrodite
Messages
Written in the Dark
Song
My Job
March 29, 2022
4.5 The poems in this collection are stimulating and beautiful. Many of them moved me, made me feel at peace, or made me reflect more deeply. Ursula K. LeGuin has evidently crafted each piece, choosing her words and line breaks with careful consideration. The only reason why I didn't rate this book five stars is because some of the poems didn't speak to me as much as the others. That is the nature of poetry, I'm sure.
December 27, 2025
reading this (in my case, all in one sitting) felt like jumping into bed after a long walk on a cold winter’s day. there’s something about le guin’s writing that nobody will ever be able to match or replicate. happy to call her my favourite author time and time again
January 25, 2018
Poetry that turns the ordinary into the extraordinary. Really great stuff.
April 10, 2020
On a night when I needed poetry, this answered me. She encourages us to "relearn [the world and] our being in it" and speaks reverently of the world enfolding us: "To be there in the sacred place, the temple. To witness fully, and be thus the altar of the thing witnessed."
Word.
"Hard times are coming, when we'll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope. We'll need writers who can remember freedom--poets, visionaries--realists of a larger reality."
Word.
"Hard times are coming, when we'll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope. We'll need writers who can remember freedom--poets, visionaries--realists of a larger reality."
January 2, 2016
Oh, this was delightful! On top of the very enjoyable poems, some of which I really loved, LeGuin adds two essays at the back, including a lovely one on expression of form in poetry. Terrific volume!
November 9, 2024
The final postscript in this book, published by a small, local-to-where-I-once-was, radical press, contains Le Guin’s speech with her famous line, which I’d not seen in context before:
“Books aren’t just commodities; the profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable—but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.”
It’s a powerful passage, but it feels an odd fit for Late in the Day. Le Guin has no profit motive organ, of course, but many of these old age poems are (freeform and in various traditional meters) experiments on Greek myth or nature metaphors—not really resistance or change in a way that I see.
The best poems in the book are on salt and spoons, the everyday materiality that is at the core of Le Guin’s revolutionary reimaginings. The Kesh, she says in the Library of America edition of Always Coming Home, wrote poetry the way they cooked or sewed: as part of life, not as profession.
The second best are the songs, which are fun to sing. Their own kind of everyday, letting you use your voice.
I’m happy to have read this book; it was nice to try starting my mornings with poetry. But I didn’t need such a wide breadth of Le Guin’s interests. I would have preferred more everyday poems, and especially more silliness, which is sometimes revolutionary and sometimes just fun.
Here’s a poem my dorky grandfather wrote to my dorky grandmother, one of countless poems they wrote to and with each other and their friends:
“Though I would not disparage
Our first seven years of marriage
I hope we shall ameliorate
the next eight”
I want to see Le Guin’s version of this delightfully bad, sweet stuff.
“Books aren’t just commodities; the profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable—but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.”
It’s a powerful passage, but it feels an odd fit for Late in the Day. Le Guin has no profit motive organ, of course, but many of these old age poems are (freeform and in various traditional meters) experiments on Greek myth or nature metaphors—not really resistance or change in a way that I see.
The best poems in the book are on salt and spoons, the everyday materiality that is at the core of Le Guin’s revolutionary reimaginings. The Kesh, she says in the Library of America edition of Always Coming Home, wrote poetry the way they cooked or sewed: as part of life, not as profession.
The second best are the songs, which are fun to sing. Their own kind of everyday, letting you use your voice.
I’m happy to have read this book; it was nice to try starting my mornings with poetry. But I didn’t need such a wide breadth of Le Guin’s interests. I would have preferred more everyday poems, and especially more silliness, which is sometimes revolutionary and sometimes just fun.
Here’s a poem my dorky grandfather wrote to my dorky grandmother, one of countless poems they wrote to and with each other and their friends:
“Though I would not disparage
Our first seven years of marriage
I hope we shall ameliorate
the next eight”
I want to see Le Guin’s version of this delightfully bad, sweet stuff.
May 26, 2019
Late in the Day: Poems 2010–2014 is the first book of poetry I've read in quite some time and out of the last several I've read, it was probably the most enjoyable. The beauty of Ursula K. Le Guin's mind is so evident within her work and it is so clear that she does not see the world the same way as the rest of us. She writes about such small, seemingly insignificant objects (kitchen spoons, an Indian pestle, etc.) and manages to make such profound statements about the human experience while doing so. I also loved how she paid homage to several different gods and goddesses (Aphrodite, Hermes) and spun mythological tales in verse.
Reading Late in the Day: Poems 2010–2014 inspired me to pick up my pen and write--which is something I hadn't done in a very long time. Writing poetry used to be as essential to my being as breathing in air and it's something that I miss dearly.
Here is one of my favorite verses:
"The little towns, the driftwood fires
all down the beaches burning ...
It will be dark in that night when
the deep basalt shifts and signs,
headlands collapse, cliffs fail.
Then
the tumult of the sea returning.
And silence.
The slow drift of stars."
--Ursula K. Le Guin
*sigh* Isn't that gorgeous?
Reading Late in the Day: Poems 2010–2014 inspired me to pick up my pen and write--which is something I hadn't done in a very long time. Writing poetry used to be as essential to my being as breathing in air and it's something that I miss dearly.
Here is one of my favorite verses:
"The little towns, the driftwood fires
all down the beaches burning ...
It will be dark in that night when
the deep basalt shifts and signs,
headlands collapse, cliffs fail.
Then
the tumult of the sea returning.
And silence.
The slow drift of stars."
--Ursula K. Le Guin
*sigh* Isn't that gorgeous?
August 14, 2021
A beautiful collection of poetry. Meditations on landscapes, everyday items, classical myths, the meaning of life, and other topics. The essay on poetry at the end is wonderfully informative. I love knowing how Ursula K Le Guin's mind works, so it is a gift. The essay points out different poetic forms used in the poems in this book and I would like to look back at these and study them. Poetic forms are very new to me as I write in free verse. An exceptional book of poetry that I will spend time with again in the future, referring to the essay in the back.
November 2, 2022
Meditative, slow and soothing. It's been a while since I came across a book with a jacket that suits the atmosphere of its content. I’m glad I had a chance to read Le Guin's poetry - while I think she’s still at her best as a prosaist and essayist, her verses bring us a great sensibility and variety of topics that might otherwise be seen as dull.
July 6, 2020
Self is lost, a sacrifice to praise,
and praise itself sinks into quietness.
and praise itself sinks into quietness.
May 10, 2024
i liked it, but i think i need to read ursula’s fiction writing to rlly get a feel for her!
December 20, 2016
damn, ursula!!!
from the forward ("Deep in Admiration"): "Science describes accurately from outside, poetry describes accurately from inside. Science explicates, poetry implicates. Both celebrate what they describe. We need the languages of both science and poetry to save us from merely stockpiling endless 'information' that fails to inform our ignorance or our irresponsibility. // By replacing unfounded, willful opinion, science can increase moral sensitivity; by demonstrating and performing aesthetic order or beauty, poetry can move minds to the sense of fellowship that prevents careless usage or exploitation of our fellow beings, waste and cruelty."
i loved the arrangement of this book. what struck me in a lot of the poems was that complicated language (mostly heavy alliteration, tongue-twister-esque combos of sounds) made me pause and slow down and reread; but this didn't seem showy, it felt purposeful, made me feel a bit abashed and apologetic! made me pay attention and want to pay attention.
faves: western outlaws, my house, hymn to time, element 80 ("peaceful and clear are your eyes, O kindest of con-men"), (of course the follow-up of sorts) hermes betrayed, the story, the salt, night sounds, orders, dead languages ("May myopic scholars scowl / forever at fragments of inscription")...
i didn't ""understand"" all of what's in here. and not all of them struck a chord. but "sense of kinship" indeed.
also really enjoyed the short essay on form at the end.
from the forward ("Deep in Admiration"): "Science describes accurately from outside, poetry describes accurately from inside. Science explicates, poetry implicates. Both celebrate what they describe. We need the languages of both science and poetry to save us from merely stockpiling endless 'information' that fails to inform our ignorance or our irresponsibility. // By replacing unfounded, willful opinion, science can increase moral sensitivity; by demonstrating and performing aesthetic order or beauty, poetry can move minds to the sense of fellowship that prevents careless usage or exploitation of our fellow beings, waste and cruelty."
i loved the arrangement of this book. what struck me in a lot of the poems was that complicated language (mostly heavy alliteration, tongue-twister-esque combos of sounds) made me pause and slow down and reread; but this didn't seem showy, it felt purposeful, made me feel a bit abashed and apologetic! made me pay attention and want to pay attention.
faves: western outlaws, my house, hymn to time, element 80 ("peaceful and clear are your eyes, O kindest of con-men"), (of course the follow-up of sorts) hermes betrayed, the story, the salt, night sounds, orders, dead languages ("May myopic scholars scowl / forever at fragments of inscription")...
i didn't ""understand"" all of what's in here. and not all of them struck a chord. but "sense of kinship" indeed.
also really enjoyed the short essay on form at the end.
September 8, 2016
I ordered this book mostly to check out PM Press for a friend's poetry. The book design is quite beautiful, and I will be helping my friend to submit to this press. The poetry of Ursula Le Guin, while not always technically stunning, really had something to say. She's a better storyteller than a poet, but she shines with wisdom in any genre.
August 6, 2022
A collection of poems by Ursula Le Guin.
It is probably an odd thing to start reading Le Guin's poems before even reading any of her novels, but that is just the way things went. But if these are any measure of the beauty of her novels, ...
These poems are beautiful, moving, smart, ...
These weren't the type of poems that feel edgy or funky, like the modern poetry I have gotten used to, but the kind that are like expensive confectionery. Sweet, beautiful, flowing.
Absolutely worth taking my time for.
It is probably an odd thing to start reading Le Guin's poems before even reading any of her novels, but that is just the way things went. But if these are any measure of the beauty of her novels, ...
These poems are beautiful, moving, smart, ...
These weren't the type of poems that feel edgy or funky, like the modern poetry I have gotten used to, but the kind that are like expensive confectionery. Sweet, beautiful, flowing.
Absolutely worth taking my time for.
January 11, 2016
I got this book from the public library and read it in one sitting. Now I plan to buy a copy so I can read it all year long - Ursula K Le Guin perfectly captures Oregon in lyrical prose that I felt should be set to music and sung. I loved her diverse use of form. Some of my favorite poems were Constellating, Geology of the Northwest Coast, Hymn to Aphrodite and The Old Music.
December 14, 2015
She is very strong and imAginative, with a personal way with words and stories.She sees deeper and with more truth. In these poems, the master words -person with long confidence puts together words and thoughts so comfortably and with majesty.
August 22, 2016
I was a little disappointed by this collection. There were some poems that I thought were quite good, but many that I felt were mediocre, not unique in any way, and had convoluted language. I have loved everything Le Guin that I've read up until this point, so this is a shock and a big let down.
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