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Ursula K. Le Guin
USA
Photo Credit © Marian Wood Kolisch
| Born in Berkeley in 1929, Ursula K. Le Guin has
published many novels, short stories, books for children, and five
volumes of poetry, the most recent being SIXTY ODD from Shambhala. In
August 2003, the University of New Mexico Press published her
translation of 167 poems of Gabriela Mistral. |
Invocation
Ride beside me.
Sleep beside me,
brother ghost
never born.
Be my guide
when I'm lost
and alone.
From your distance
bring me close
to the bone.
Ride with me where I must go.
Dream in me what I must see.
Be what I cannot be.
Be almost me,
brother ghost.
Let me be other,
almost brother.
Set me free.
Ride beside me.
Sleep with me.
Coast Range 3/3/03
Fog in alders. Alders in fog. The pale rust
catkins clouding, crowding the branches, thin stems
silver, shadowed, thousands of silent harp strings.
March is the war month.
March the noun, the lion that turns to the lamb.
March the verb of armies and soldeirs, goose-steps.
Mars the god, beloved of Venus, Mother
of alders, of all life.
Nine Lines, August 9
The gold of evening is closing,
drawing in, tightening.
The light is losing. It is
a little frightening
how fast August goes.
Others have noticed this.
The cat on his concealed switchblade toes
comes by, and what he says
is silent, but enlightening.
Talk Shows
In rush and gush and wordy juice
the torrents of our talking run,
I say to you, he says to them,
the sap that swells the human stem.
Listen, listen: a lesser voice,
a whisper of the wind on stone
along the river's drouth-white bed,
the shadow of the word unsaid.
Old
For Naomi Replansky
My mother-body held me tight.
I sucked the flowing world from her,
the sweet air, the warm light,
and she sang sleep to me at night.
There's no more comfort in her breast
and only distance in her arms.
She no longer holds me close.
"Go on," she sings now, "little ghost."
© All Copyright, Ursula K. Le
Guin.
All Rights Reserved. Printed By
Permission.
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