LEAVES by Ursula K. Le Guin

Meri Utkovska
Dec 20, 2023
3 min read

Updated: Sep 2

Ursula K. Le Guin in 2016. Photo courtesy and copyright of William Anthony.

Leaves, To the Rain and Hymn to Time: Three of Le Guin's Masterful Poems Leaves

By Ursula K. Le Guin

Years do odd things to identity.What does it mean to say

I am that child in the photograph

at Kishamish in 1935?

Might as well say I am the shadow

of a leaf of the acacia tree

felled seventy years ago

moving on the page the child reads.

Might as well say I am the words she read

or the words I wrote in other years,

flicker of shade and sunlight

To the Rain

By Ursula K. Le Guin

Mother rain, manifold, measureless,

falling on fallow, on field and forest,

on house-roof, low hovel, high tower,

downwelling waters all-washing, wider

than cities, softer than sisterhood, vaster

than countrysides, calming, recalling:

return to us, teaching our troubled

souls in your ceaseless descent

to fall, to be fellow, to feel to the root,

Hymn to Time

By Ursula K. Le Guin

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.

About Ursula K. Le Guin

Born in Berkley, California, on October 21, 1929, Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was an American author, essayist, short story writer and poet. She authored over 20 novels, several books of essays, over 100 short stories, and a dozen books of poetry.

Le Guin earned her BA from Radcliffe College and her MA in Romance Literature from Columbia University. She then studied in Paris on a Fulbright fellowship and began her doctoral studies, which she later abandoned after marrying her husband, historian Charles Le Guin, in 1953.

Writing Style and Influences

Le Guin started writing full-time in the late 1950s, and her fiction gravitated toward the genre of science fiction. Strongly influenced by Taoism, cultural anthropology, feminism, and the writings of Carl Jung, Le Guin explored our own world through fantasy, philosophical inquiry, the search for balance and equilibrium. As a child, she found Lao-tzu’s Tao Te Ching in her father’s library, and remained deeply moved by Taoist principles throughout her life.

First published in 1959, Le Guin was best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, as well as the Earthsea fantasy series.

Le Guin's Poetry and Awards

Le Guin's poetry collections include:

Late in the Day: Poems 2010-2014,
Finding My Elegy: New and Selected Poems (2012),
Incredible Good Fortune (2006), and
Sixty Odd (1999).

Her incredible imagination and commitment towards her work earned her six Nebula Awards, seven Hugo Awards, and SFWA’s Grand Master, along with the PEN/Malamud and many other awards.

She died on January 22nd, 2018.