I first knew of Ursala LeGuin as a sci-fi author. Her book, “The Left Hand of Darkness”, is considered one of the great works of that genre, and is certainly one of my favorites of that, or any, genre. Then a few years ago around the end of October, I came across a short little poem of hers, “All Saints All Souls”, and being a recovering Catholic as well as a poet, I fell in love with it. There are so many perfectly chosen words in this short poem: “saints all” in line 1, “bare bones” in line 4, “southward-fleeing” in line 6, and the contrast of doomsday and feastday in 7 and 8, all seem well-chosen to me anyway. Here’s the poem:
All Saints All Souls
This is the day when the saints all go
silently to church in France
and over the mountains of Mexico
the bare bones dance.
Ghosts rise up from graveyard sleep
to follow the southward-fleeing sun.
This is the doomsday of the leaf,
the feastday of the skeleton.
Ursala Le Guin
Then last week, a Facebook friend posted her poem “Hymn to Time” which I find equally intriguing:
Hymn to Time
Time says “Let there be”
every moment and instantly
there is space and the radiance
of each bright galaxy.
And eyes beholding radiance.
And the gnats’ flickering dance.
And the seas’ expanse.
And death, and chance.
Time makes room
for going and coming home
and in time’s womb
begins all ending.
Time is being and being
time, it is all one thing,
the shining, the seeing,
the dark abounding.
Ursula K. Le Guin
Notice how the rhyming varies throughout. Line 3 of the first stanza foretells the rhymes throughout stanza 2; and line 4 of stanza 3 serves the same purpose for stanza 4.
LeGuin died in January, 2018, at the age of 89. She authored 21 novels, 11 collections of short stories, 11 volumes of poetry, 13 children’s books, and five collections of essays and criticism. In 2014 she was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and in 2016 she joined the short list of authors to be published in their lifetimes by the Library of America.
Her novels, though listed as sci-fi, transcend that genre.
On Tuesday, July 27, the US Postal Service will honor her with the 33rd stamp in their Literary Arts Series.
My advice to you is to read some of Ursala LeGuin’s work.
Until next time,
Ed