Finding My Elegy

August 1, 2012

In this collection of new and selected poems, National Book Award winner Le Guin (Lavinia), best known for her sf and fantasy novels, writes about life's sharp edges as if she were conversing calmly with a friend. Places and people exchange stories of identity and fear in poems that meld the abstract and the concrete, as Le Guin writes passionately about a range of themes from environmental and existential to sociopolitical and autobiographical. Using clear, precise language that frequently employs folk and mythical symbols, Le Guin uses comical and surreal images: "crows are the color of anarchy/ and close up they are a little bit scary/ an eye as bright as anything/ Having a pet crow will be/ like having Voltaire on a string." Often, the poems celebrate nature's fertile beauty as if it furnished spiritual redemption, yet while they provoke a kind of Zen tranquility one can still hear the defiant tone of the romantic poets. VERDICT Le Guin turns her rich experiences into luminous poems that incite meaning and beauty. Recommended for all readers.--Sadiq Alkoriji, South Regional Lib., Broward Cty., FL

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