20 Comments
User's avatar
Daniel Hettenbach's avatar

We creep through our loss

Picking up pieces

Of what's left our shattered selves

Sometimes the wind the rain the sun

Comforts us in our weeping

And we are left

Crying and scratching

Hoping in spite

Of what we know in our hearts

Expand full comment
Daniel Henderson's avatar

Very well done. If I didn't know any better I would have assumed this was a companion piece to the poem.

"Hoping in spite"

Very well executed enjambment!

Expand full comment
Daniel Hettenbach's avatar

Daniel, our name means in hebrew, god is my judge, i am his judge

Expand full comment
Corie Feiner's avatar

As a fifty year-old woman whose intention is to age with grace, this poem resonates with me. And the leaves as the metaphor and the acceptance of age comes across beautifully!

Expand full comment
Miller Henry Grace's avatar

Age, age what is it? The number, our peaks, our nadirs! Before us, after us, with us, waves of beauty, waves of thorns, let us live, let us, be, may live shore our horns, sharpens our thorns, smiles so bright like for me, you and us, the leaves of autumn at some stage be upon all of us, the lives somber notes are here to stay, oh life with me, with us, might be really more than okay!

Expand full comment
Maha's avatar

Yes, I *do* think life is more than okay. Thanks.

Expand full comment
Rick Barooah's avatar

I close my eyes to see the indifferent cold approaching me

calling out and holding onto the last threads

making plans for the useless future that'll end in bitter coldness

memories start to rain like snowballs just to disappear as bathroom glass mist

not a trace of the lost time shall remain but the human mind holds on

I must see the world disintegrate as everyone tries to keep me afloat

the coldness of my last thought shall always resonate in me

We are all seeing the cold approaching us.

Expand full comment
Janet L. Cucharo's avatar

I love this poem. I didn't know she was a poet. I have only been familiar with her SciFi/Fantasy books. Thanks for sharing this!

Expand full comment
Corie Feiner's avatar

It makes sense though since she is so precise with words.

Expand full comment
Eleanor Mac Gregor's avatar

Ursula Le Guin's poem shows how she was caught up in the mystery of self-identity. it persists in her prose works as well.

Expand full comment
Daniel Henderson's avatar

I say this as someone who's still pretty young that this poem rings true in so many ways for me. The different experiences that shape and transform us from adolescence to adulthood could do so, so much, that the 'previous' you essentially wouldn't recognize the 'present' you. Would the two of you get along, strive to become someone different or would nothing change as is? Fascinating to think about.

Expand full comment
Learning Vulcan's avatar

Even her prose can be poetic!

“The towers of the city went up into mist, great ladders of blurred light. Trains passed overhead, bright shrieking streaks. Massive walls of stone and glass fronted the streets above the race of cars and trolleys. Stone, steel, glass, electric light. No faces.”

The Dispossessed ~ Ursula K LeGuin

Expand full comment
Daniel Henderson's avatar

Wow, that is poetic. I can see the bones of this poem in her prose as well. The poem made me wonder if I should check out her other work but this passage fully convinced me. Thank you!

Expand full comment
Deborah Taylor-French's avatar

Thank you so much for sharing one of my favorite writer and role models.

Expand full comment
Marilyn Peterlin's avatar

Ursula Le Guin is an absolute genius of a thinker and writer. She’s a gem I recently discovered and am reading a wide variety of her works, and she is as diverse as her interests and talent.

Expand full comment
Alix's avatar

Amen sister!!!!

Expand full comment
drewzmuze's avatar

#this 🙏🏽✨️

Expand full comment
Dwina Murphy-Gibb's avatar

the body ages but the soul has no age and poetry comes through the soul x

Expand full comment
Mathew Snyder's avatar

Good lord she's so great. I love her so much!

Expand full comment
Maha's avatar

Might as well say....

Expand full comment