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So Far So Good: Final Poems: 2014-2018
"It's hard to think of another living author who has written so well for so long in so many styles as Ursula K. Le Guin." --Salon
"She never loses touch with her reverence for the immense what is." --Margaret Atwood
"There is no writer with an imagination as forceful and delicate as Le Guin's." --Grace Paley
Legendary author Ursula K. Le Guin was lauded by millions for her ground- breaking science fiction novels, but she began as a poet, and wrote across genres for her entire career. In this clarifying and sublime collection--completed shortly before her death in 2018--Le Guin is unflinching in the face of mor- tality, and full of wonder for the mysteries beyond. Redolent of the lush natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest, with rich sounds playfully echoing myth and nursery rhyme, Le Guin bookends a long, daring, and prolific career.
From "How it Seems to Me"
In the vast abyss before time, self is not, and soul commingles
with mist, and rock, and light. In time, soul brings the misty self to be.
Then slow time hardens self to stone while ever lightening the soul,
till soul can loose its hold of self . . .
Ursula K. Le Guin is the author of over sixty novels, short fiction works, translations, and volumes of poetry, including the acclaimed novels The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed. Her books continue to sell millions of copies worldwide. Le Guin died in 2018 in her home in Portland, Oregon.
"She never loses touch with her reverence for the immense what is." --Margaret Atwood
"There is no writer with an imagination as forceful and delicate as Le Guin's." --Grace Paley
Legendary author Ursula K. Le Guin was lauded by millions for her ground- breaking science fiction novels, but she began as a poet, and wrote across genres for her entire career. In this clarifying and sublime collection--completed shortly before her death in 2018--Le Guin is unflinching in the face of mor- tality, and full of wonder for the mysteries beyond. Redolent of the lush natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest, with rich sounds playfully echoing myth and nursery rhyme, Le Guin bookends a long, daring, and prolific career.
From "How it Seems to Me"
In the vast abyss before time, self is not, and soul commingles
with mist, and rock, and light. In time, soul brings the misty self to be.
Then slow time hardens self to stone while ever lightening the soul,
till soul can loose its hold of self . . .
Ursula K. Le Guin is the author of over sixty novels, short fiction works, translations, and volumes of poetry, including the acclaimed novels The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed. Her books continue to sell millions of copies worldwide. Le Guin died in 2018 in her home in Portland, Oregon.
100 pages, Hardcover
First published October 2, 2018
77 people are currently reading
2033 people want to read
About the author
Ursula K. Le Guin
1,043 books30.1k followersUrsula K. Le Guin published twenty-two novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. She lived in Portland, Oregon.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 253 reviews
May 18, 2024
The hare that dwells on the hill of delight
even in wintry age will not turn white.
Thinner, but as lively as before,
she springs and dances at Aphrodite’s door.
Ursula Le Guin is as canonized as they come by now; I need not sing her praises. But I had not, personally, read her poetry. Last month, 10 perfect lines of alliterative verse crossed my instagram, beginning “Mother rain, manifold, measureless, / falling on fallow, on field and forest,” and thoughtlessly, before I knew what I had done, a book was ordered—
I think of the journey
we will take together
in the oarless boat
across the shoreless river.
Le Guin’s last book; final revisions made and sent to the copyeditor seven days before she died, age 88. There are not many words here, but each was chosen with care. It is not hard to recognize the voice that spun those other tales, beloved tales of futures and otherwises, lovely and strange. Le Guin is thinking of her stories, too. They give her poems another layer of meaning, as if they were—as indeed they were—written by an old friend. So, The Old Novelist’s Lament, here in its entirety:
I miss the many that I was,
my lovers, my adventurers,
the women I went with to the Pole.
What was mine, and what was theirs?
We were all rich. Now that I share
the cowardice of poverty,
I miss that courage of companionship.
I wish that they might come back to me
and free me from this cell of self,
this stale sink of age and ills,
and take me on the ways they knew,
under the sky, across the hills.
even in wintry age will not turn white.
Thinner, but as lively as before,
she springs and dances at Aphrodite’s door.
Ursula Le Guin is as canonized as they come by now; I need not sing her praises. But I had not, personally, read her poetry. Last month, 10 perfect lines of alliterative verse crossed my instagram, beginning “Mother rain, manifold, measureless, / falling on fallow, on field and forest,” and thoughtlessly, before I knew what I had done, a book was ordered—
I think of the journey
we will take together
in the oarless boat
across the shoreless river.
Le Guin’s last book; final revisions made and sent to the copyeditor seven days before she died, age 88. There are not many words here, but each was chosen with care. It is not hard to recognize the voice that spun those other tales, beloved tales of futures and otherwises, lovely and strange. Le Guin is thinking of her stories, too. They give her poems another layer of meaning, as if they were—as indeed they were—written by an old friend. So, The Old Novelist’s Lament, here in its entirety:
I miss the many that I was,
my lovers, my adventurers,
the women I went with to the Pole.
What was mine, and what was theirs?
We were all rich. Now that I share
the cowardice of poverty,
I miss that courage of companionship.
I wish that they might come back to me
and free me from this cell of self,
this stale sink of age and ills,
and take me on the ways they knew,
under the sky, across the hills.
August 9, 2018
I liked this. I prefer her novels and essays, overall. But she conveys the experience of being very old, physically, mentally, and emotionally, and I don't see that every day. Human life grounded in the natural world is another main theme, and there is a set of twelve poems from the perspective of William Bligh, after he was put to sea in a lifeboat by the mutiny on the Bounty. There is a lot of integrity in these poems. I did not get the impression that she cared about impressing anyone, more that she was most interested in getting it right for herself. Another quality I don't see often enough.
October 30, 2019
"HOW IT SEEMS TO ME"
In the vast abyss of time before, self
is not, and soul commingles
with mist, and rock, and light. In time,
soul brings the misty self to be.
Then slow time hardens self to stone
while ever lightening the soul,
till soul can loose it hold of self
and both are free and return
to vastness and dissolve in light,
the long light after time.
In the vast abyss of time before, self
is not, and soul commingles
with mist, and rock, and light. In time,
soul brings the misty self to be.
Then slow time hardens self to stone
while ever lightening the soul,
till soul can loose it hold of self
and both are free and return
to vastness and dissolve in light,
the long light after time.
July 13, 2019
Searingly meaningful. Every last delicious word.
Read
April 13, 2024If you squint really hard and look at it askance..... poetry still doesn't make sense to me, but this one felt smart enough, like people who liked poetry would get it. I'm just five years old and if there isn't rhyming my brain doesn't work anymore.
October 23, 2021
(Ed. Note - I generally start off a review of a book of poetry by saying something like I have difficult relationships with poetry. I don't often get it.) Unfortunately I had a similar relationship with So Far So Good: Final Poems: 2014-2018 by Ursula K. Le Guin.
I know LeGuin for her excellent YA / Fantasy stories (the Earthsea stories) and her Sci-Fi (Left Hand of Darkness, etc). I didn't realize she had started out writing poetry. I discovered the book recently when I was looking for poetry by someone else and thought I should try it. The book is a collection of poems written and published just before LeGuin's death.
There is no doubt that she has a way with words, beautiful descriptions and many poignant emotions, especially the last chapter; In the Ninth Decade, which deals with her thoughts on aging and death. My problem, and it's mine, not LeGuin's, is my difficulty getting into the flow of a poem. But there were many that struck a chord with me. As I said, the last chapter especially.
Theodora, a poem about her mother was especially emotional, like this snippet from it
"Oh I was so angry at her when she died
for dying, but at last that's gone
and she comes to me again with silver
and turquoise on her wrists
in the sunlight."
Or this little gem... (and I'm a dog person)
"Company
A paw, a questing nose half waken me,
and I let him get under the covers.
He curls up and purrs himself asleep.
Cats are less troublesome than lovers."
(I had a puppy just like this)
There are other such gems throughout this collection. Don't let my difficulties grasping the best of poetry stop you from trying this book. It covers many themes and as I said earlier, Ursula LeGuin has a way with words and description. Worthwhile to see this different aspect of her mind and of her writing. (3.5 stars)
I know LeGuin for her excellent YA / Fantasy stories (the Earthsea stories) and her Sci-Fi (Left Hand of Darkness, etc). I didn't realize she had started out writing poetry. I discovered the book recently when I was looking for poetry by someone else and thought I should try it. The book is a collection of poems written and published just before LeGuin's death.
There is no doubt that she has a way with words, beautiful descriptions and many poignant emotions, especially the last chapter; In the Ninth Decade, which deals with her thoughts on aging and death. My problem, and it's mine, not LeGuin's, is my difficulty getting into the flow of a poem. But there were many that struck a chord with me. As I said, the last chapter especially.
Theodora, a poem about her mother was especially emotional, like this snippet from it
"Oh I was so angry at her when she died
for dying, but at last that's gone
and she comes to me again with silver
and turquoise on her wrists
in the sunlight."
Or this little gem... (and I'm a dog person)
"Company
A paw, a questing nose half waken me,
and I let him get under the covers.
He curls up and purrs himself asleep.
Cats are less troublesome than lovers."
(I had a puppy just like this)
There are other such gems throughout this collection. Don't let my difficulties grasping the best of poetry stop you from trying this book. It covers many themes and as I said earlier, Ursula LeGuin has a way with words and description. Worthwhile to see this different aspect of her mind and of her writing. (3.5 stars)
February 8, 2019
Not my favorite poetry collection I've ever read, but definitely enjoyable. She has a very lyrical writing style. My favorite in the collection:
Wakeful
(Islanded)
Snow and silence in the streets.
Winter in the bone.
In silent houses people sleep
each one alone.
Self-islanded by thought and dream
the solitary soul
forgets the deepest depth, the earth
that joins us all.
Wakeful
(Islanded)
Snow and silence in the streets.
Winter in the bone.
In silent houses people sleep
each one alone.
Self-islanded by thought and dream
the solitary soul
forgets the deepest depth, the earth
that joins us all.
February 14, 2020
Nie wszystko mnie zachwyciło, ale jeśli jak ja kochacie prozę Le Guin, to wszystko to samo odnajdziecie w jej poezji.
November 9, 2025
Poetry seems like a very difficult thing to rate. Suffice to say I loved it enough to justify purchasing the collected works. I'd love to be a better reader of poetry...for now, its enough that I enjoy it and that I gain a lot of comfort from reading it allowed.
April 9, 2019
"Ursula sent off her revised manuscript for So Far So Good for copyediting on January 15, 2018. She died January 22. This book, then, is the last collection of her poetry she would edit; it is her farewell."
Nekad nebūtu iedomājusies, ka varētu sastapt Darvinu un Galileju dzejā.
Nekad nebūtu iedomājusies, ka varētu sastapt Darvinu un Galileju dzejā.
June 4, 2025
I read the first 75% of this collection thinking to myself how charming and musical and sweet these poems were, and then the last section kind of hit me like a truck. in a good way though
Read
November 21, 2023Poezja to nie moja bajka, ale dla Urszulki zrobiłem wyjątek.
December 25, 2023
beautiful. Lots of nature intertwining w myth. I think Ursula le guin deeply understood what it meant to be human :')
December 25, 2018
Written by my favorite author of all time, all genres and published post-humously, this is a beautiful book full of elegant, poignant poetry. Much of it looks toward the end of life or looks back at a long life lived and lived well.
It’s emotional reading especially the last set of poems, knowing that she did not live long enough to see them actually published. But there is such strength and strength of character in these poems that you can help but also be heartened.
It’s emotional reading especially the last set of poems, knowing that she did not live long enough to see them actually published. But there is such strength and strength of character in these poems that you can help but also be heartened.
October 1, 2021
I felt a little embarrassed reading this, like I should have waited until I was older. That said, my favorite poem was Islanded
And in general: she paints with her poems. Wind, homes, gods, rivers, waters, earth, boats, uncertainty, death, interconnectivity, memory, shadow, theories, beliefs, universality are all covered, frequently with plain spoken and playful/curious sense of language (some rhymes, some formality to the poems' forms and the various sections/chapters)... a (very good) novelist's book of poetry
And in general: she paints with her poems. Wind, homes, gods, rivers, waters, earth, boats, uncertainty, death, interconnectivity, memory, shadow, theories, beliefs, universality are all covered, frequently with plain spoken and playful/curious sense of language (some rhymes, some formality to the poems' forms and the various sections/chapters)... a (very good) novelist's book of poetry
March 11, 2019
I was unfamiliar with Le Guin’s poetry and found myself loving it so much, that I bought my own copy. (I had initially borrowed it from the library.) There is a certain contemplative aspect that reminds me of Mary Oliver.
January 17, 2020
A powerful collection of poems that will be this author's last. In it, she reflects on nature, aging, and the roles that poetry and writing play in a well-lived life. Moving, and worthy of slow reading and meditative engagement.
January 1, 2019
I'm literally in tears.
July 19, 2020
I don’t know or care about how “good” these poems are because poetry shouldn’t be about that anyway. I just loved sitting with Ursula’s mind in her final work. That’s good enough for me.
March 15, 2025
I find Le Guin's poetry strangely wholesome, in the sense that it is entirely whole and sound, so rich in the density of being itself it has no need of any anxieties or freneticism that the days lately lend themselves to. Though very simple, she's incredibly masterful, in the same way her novels are; the images live on in you for a long time, tried and true, like sand brushes over you and gives you its warmth with no need of holding back.
As someone who is very wordy and often far too self-concerned in my work, she's like a hard refresh for me, and I simply hold her rather in awe, it must be said.
As someone who is very wordy and often far too self-concerned in my work, she's like a hard refresh for me, and I simply hold her rather in awe, it must be said.
August 15, 2021
I am fascinated with the stories of people as they age. Writers, poets, song-writers. I generally prefer e-books, but have this one as a physical book. I will return to holding this book, and reading the poems in it. Poems of the world and reaching the end of a life. Grateful to have these printed words as record.
August 9, 2020
Hayatının son yıllarında yazdığı bu şiirler çok etkileyiciydi. ''Mevsimlerin bilgesiyim artık'' demiş kendine. Gerçekten de kitap doğanın dilini bilen bir şaman bilgeliği ile başladı. Sonra yaşlılığın getirdiği hüzün ve anılara doğru evrildi.
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May 20, 2023not the most emotionally impactful poetry to me, but there’s simply no denying that Ursula K Le Guin knew her way around the English language. the nature imagery + way she uses rhyme and alliteration gave me some Emily Dickinson vibes. biiig bay area/oregon place love, she’s just like me etc etc. favorites: McCoy creek: cattle, all saints all souls, there was a jar in Oregon, an autumn reading, “there is always something watching you,” bats, looking back
December 5, 2023
I am on a slow mission to read Le Guin’s entire ouvre, and I have recently been inspired to read more poetry, so I naturally picked this up for a morning read—these were fantastic and reminded me of the long and prolific life she had of which I sadly only discovered after her death. The first and last selections were perfect and I had several favorites throughout. I especially enjoyed the moments of levity found in poems like “Company” : “A paw, a questing nose half waken me,
and I let him get under the covers.
He curls up and purrs himself asleep.
Cats are less troublesome than lovers.”
and I let him get under the covers.
He curls up and purrs himself asleep.
Cats are less troublesome than lovers.”
Read
February 7, 2024A willingness to die is my desire,
not of the mind alone
but of the weary heart and weakened bone.
My fear is that the body, always wanting more,
will clutch at flames of fire
sooner than leave me free to go
on through the open door.
not of the mind alone
but of the weary heart and weakened bone.
My fear is that the body, always wanting more,
will clutch at flames of fire
sooner than leave me free to go
on through the open door.
Read
September 6, 2023your jealous god. your neighbor's sad desire.
February 28, 2019
This book amused me as well as bringing me to tears. There is so much wisdom here. This is the only book I've ever read by this author and I know I will go back to the library for more.
August 29, 2022
What a way to go out. Ursula, I'll see you on The Farthest Shore.
August 12, 2024
A lovely collection! I’m very glad I picked it up. I’m not familiar with her other poetry, but it looks like Ursula became very interested in sleep and dreaming in the 2nd to last portion but wrote directly about death in the last section, like she stopped fucking around. She’s so cool.
May 24, 2022
Its been a while since I have read a book of poetry. Loaned to me by a friend, this was an excellent set of poems to ease me in. Speaking of humanity, spirituality, and reflections of life- this author lured me in and I found myself staring into space after each poem and relishing it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 253 reviews