an excerpt
by Ursula K. LeGuin
Her work, I really think her work
isn't fighting, isn't winning,
isn't being the Earth, isn't being the Moon.
Her work, I really think her work
is finding what her real work is
and doing it,
her work, her own work,
her being human, her being in the world.
So, if I am
a writer, my work
is words. Unwritten letters.
Words are my way of being human, woman, me.
Word is the whorl that spins me,
the shuttle thrown though the warp of years
to weave a life, the hand
that shapes to use, to grace.
Word is my tooth,
my wing.
Word is my wisdom.
I am a bundle of letters
in a secret drawer
in an old desk.
Writers: Please find and read the rest.
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I love that you give us homework. You are a teacher at heart aren't you!
ReplyDeleteI can't find it yet on line. Does that mean I have to use that old fashioned Dewey decimal system?
I have enjoyed her website thus far. Thanks for a good link and intriguing assignment.
LeGuin is pretty protective of how her writing is published. You probably noticed that she resigned from the Authors Guild because of their settlement with Google, re:Google Books. So her poem may not be online. I'll copy it for you on our printer/copier. You need it. It's lovely.
ReplyDeleteOh ... but the poem is in her book - the wave in the mind. talks and essays on the writer, the reader, and the imagination. Also a great read. To pique your interest, here's the first paragraph:
ReplyDelete"I am a man. Now you may think I've made some kind of silly mistake about gender, or maybe that I'm trying to fool you, because my first name ends in a, and I own three bras, and I've been pregnant five time, and other things like that that you might have noticed, little details. But details don't matter. If we have anything to learn from politicians it's that details don't matter. I am a man, and I want you to believe and accept this as a fact, just as I did for many years."
My interest is totally piqued. I love that she is so protective of her work and so anti-commercialism. It sounds like I need to track down some of her stuff on my next trek to the library. Yay for inspiration! Perhaps we could have our own writer's book club and start with something of hers?
ReplyDelete