Earlier this week, I mentioned that poems are a quick road to wonder. And Poetry Friday is where some of the most creative people around share the poems that they are writing or reading. It’s a deep pleasure.
On October 17th The New Yorker published “The Fantastic Ursula K Le Guin.” Really could there be a better title for this essay? It sent me straight to my journal to copy out passages and book recommendations. It also sent me to the library catalog to see if there were any new poem collections.
Oh joy! PM Press published Late in the Day: Poems 2010-2014 just this year. This slim edition is buoyed up by three short essays. They add such richness to the poems. Especially the Afterward called “Form, Free Verse, Free Form.” It’s a master class in poetic forms with examples drawn from the very poems in the collection. Brilliant!
By far my favorite section is called Four Lines. I am an avowed lover of short poems, and Le Guin packs so much into these four breath poems. Here’s my favorite:
The Salt
para Gabriela
The salt in the small bowl looks up at me
with all its glittering eyes and says:
I am the dry sea.
Your blood tastes of me.
–Ursula K. Le Guin, all rights reserved
Head over to The Miss Rumphius Effect for all the day’s poetry goodness.
I’m so glad I joined the Poetry Friday community, because it’s absolutely rekindled a love of poetry that had been dormant for years and years. I love the idea of poetry as a quick road to wonder – so absolutely true.
The people who post at Poetry Friday are the BEST!
Hi Kortney,
I’m quite smitten by that short Ursula Le Guin poem you posted. It packs quite a punch. Thank you!
And today is Ursula’s 87th birthday! Amazing!
I didn’t realize Le Guin wrote poetry – I was only familiar with her sci fi/fantasy work. This poem you shared, Kortney, is brilliant. Thank you.
Every few years a new collection of poems comes out. Le Guin has a lovely facility with language!
I didn’t realize she wrote poetry either! Love those “glittering eyes” and “the dry sea.”
Also, what a lovely photo!
She pack a lot into those 4 lines!
Thanks–those apples were blooming in a friend’s late summer yard.
Also! The Winter Poem Swap is singing my name…
I love Le Guin’s poetry. I have a book of it, too. That poem of the salt is splendid, so deep for such a short form.