"The title of this final book, sent to her publisher in January 2018, a week before she died, might look ironic, but with a writer like Le Guin you can't be too sure. Her science fiction is full of journeys to different worlds, and many of these poems reference journeys too, both in this world and into the next."
"Cows calling for their calves from the train that takes them to the abattoir are your sisters. Landscapes are here too, sometimes under threat, sometimes evoked with beautiful simplicity, as in Autumn: gold of amber / red of ember / brown of umber / all September. Images of death in nature inevitably lead back to age and mortality, sometimes accepted as part of the natural process, elsewhere angrily resented, as in the poem about the death of Le Guin's mother Theodora."
"Thrums by Thomas A Clark (Carcanet, 12.99) A nature poet of minimalist tendencies, Clark's career spans more than 50 years; during that time he has developed a style that by stripping away some of the hallmarks of the lyric the personal voice, the argument, the rhyme returns poetry to a purity of perception that gives us not poems about nature, but nature itself."
Poems imagine journeys both to other worlds and within this one, including a reimagined Orpheus meeting Euridice. Earthly scenes focus on animals and small deaths, where even a killed mouse is granted a soul and transported imagery evokes kinship and grief. Pastoral landscapes appear in concise, vivid phrases such as Autumn: gold of amber / red of ember / brown of umber / all September. Images of death in nature lead to reflections on age and mortality, oscillating between acceptance and anger. A separate body of work embraces minimalism, stripping lyrical hallmarks to present perception itself and an almost absent personal voice.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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