Poem about Richard by Ursula K. LeGuin

I've enjoyed her fiction and essays for a long time, and I was glad to find that she'd written a poem about Richard.

It was published in Hard Words & Other Poems.  

I think it's worth the effort to track it down at a library or bookstore.

phaecilia

The link goes to Powell's bookshop....

Wednesday wrote:

The link goes to Powell's bookshop....

When I found it yesterday it took me straight to a copy of Hard Words.  Today it doesn't.  Sorry for any inconvenience.

phaecilia

I wonder if Le Guin made them remove the direct link? She's quite zealous about protecting her intellectual property.

Oh, Le Guin is a *wonderful* poet - in fact I prefer her poems to her prose, which is often rather preachy. One of my all time favourite and most treasured books is a little mini-book of her poems, called "Wild Angels", which I bought in 1979 or 1980. Everything in it is a gem and I can still quote some of the shorter ones by heart.

I've tried reading her novels but get lost in the description. My mind shuts down so that my eyes move but nothing gets past them. I wish I could read her because others find her work so good.

The early stories are much better than the late ones imo. But either way the poems are *wonderful*. This is one about a nun which I remember by heart, for example, although I've forgotten the title:

I am living in the Isle of the Wise,
And there is nothing wrong;
The wind blows along
The blessing of the skies

Oh Bread of Heaven, storm
Of transformation, change
Sorrow to something strange.
In the cold one keeps warm.

khafara wrote:

I wonder if Le Guin made them remove the direct link?  She's quite zealous about protecting her intellectual property.

She has posted some of her poems on her website, so she doesn't mind sharing them there.  I'm disappointed her poem about Richard isn't among them.

I thought I was making a link to a page of Le Guin's books at Powell's books which would make it easier to find.  I found it on her website.  The first time I tried it, it brought up a record for Hard Words and other poems.   

Guess I'll stick to plain old citations from now on.  

phaecilia

Thanks for letting us know it's out there, P! We'll see it eventually, I'm sure.

I founbd a copy going very cheap on the met and ordered it - but it has to come from the US, so it will take at least 5 days and could take weeks.

It's just called "Richard".

Loyalty bound him.  Not deft,
not flexible.  Stanley betrayed him.
Why did he fight so hard to die
so sorely hurt?  Did he foresee
the hump, the murders, and the theft,
the withered hand, and all the Tudors made him?
That were the sorer wound.
He lived what he was bound to be,
an honest man; a king, like any man;
son of a dark year; bereft.
He dies hard.  Loyaulté me lie.

Weirdly, from my perspective, on the very next page is a poem about the death of Sir Peter Medawar, whom I knew well when I was a small child (my mother was his housekeeper for two or three years).

Thank you, Whitehound.

It's beautiful, in its stark way.