Only in silence the word, only in dark the light...

[bunn]

... only in dying life: bright the hawk's flight on the empty sky.

I feel strangely gutted that Ursula Le Guin has died.  Strange how deeply the death of a writer you have never met can touch you.  I always thought of writing to her to say I'd enjoyed her thin book of poetry Walking In Cornwall because although I'm sure she got a lot of fan letters, I don't suppose she got many about an obscure book of poetry from the 1970s, but for one reason or another I never did.

Alas. 

Comments

[timetiger.livejournal.com]

What a beautiful quotation!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

They are all very lovely poems, though there are not really enough of them to make even a slim volume (it was print-on-demand and padded with local art) they were still worth buying.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

I'm sad too, even though I only discovered her books as an adult and am still very poorly read from her back catalogue.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

It's interesting how people relate strongly to her different books. For me, Earthsea is probably the big thing, that and Left Hand of Darkness. I mean, the others are also great books, but those are the ones that I can think of phrases and images for without even thinking...

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually read Left Hand yet, only The Dispossessed and the Earthsea books (and not all of those I discover now - I've got a compendium volume of the first four).

I do have a copy of The Birthday of the World and other stories buried in the spare room somewhere though, I must extricate it and actually read it!

[topum.livejournal.com]

Why not to right it anyway then? You never know who will end up reading it and how appreciated or important it might still turn out to be. I know people who would even go as far as saying that she would get to read herself it as well. Maybe still being mad and raging that she never got a fan letter about that obscure poetry book is that one thing that prevents her from getting into heaven's highest realms? )

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I think I might try doing something like a reading of one of the poems instead.

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have felt unsorted all day.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

:-(

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Me too. She was the first author whose words truly made magic for me, and there is an empty place in my soul now.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Earthsea and Lord of the Rings together, for me, and I can't remember which I read first.

[serverream.livejournal.com]

I'm sad too, even though I only discovered her books as an adult and am still very poorly read from her back catalogue.