Incredible Good Fortune: New Poems [Hardcover]

Ursula K. Le Guin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 2006

Incredible Good Fortune is Ursula K. Le Guin's sixth collection of poems, spanning the years 2000 to 2005. These poems by the celebrated author of Always Coming Home and The Language of the Night showcase Le Guin's many facets as a writer. Passionate, humanitarian, and sensuously aware of the world's vitality, Le Guin's work can also be melancholy, playful, and dreamlike. Full of insight, humor, and wisdom, this collection includes close observations of day-to-day life, reflections on childhood and growing older, and explorations of myth and fable.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

One of the world's most honored authors of science fiction (The Left Hand of Darkness, etc.) and young adult fantasy (the Earthsea trilogy), Le Guin has also maintained a serious, if less often recognized, career as a poet. This sixth gathering of poems comprises compact and often songlike work, adroit in both Western (rhyming quatrains; couplets) and non-Western (meditation and praise song) modes. Much of Le Guin's work takes cues from landscape, especially that of the Pacific Northwest, where she lives; a set of stanzaic poems about a Caribbean cruise brings out both attractive descriptions and political ironies. Le Guin also considers advancing age: a few poems address her 70th birthday, and many others consider the regrets and resolution. Le Guin's young adult fiction draws on folktale and myth, and her poetry takes advantage of similar sources, from the Philomela story to Red Riding Hood; her most admired science fiction has political overtones, and she ventures into politics here with epigrams and strong stanzas against the Iraq war. (Mar. 14)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"One of world's most honored authors of science fiction and young adult fantasy, Le Guin has also maintained a serious, if less often recognized, career as a poet. This sixth gathering of poems comprises compact and often songlike work, adroit in both Western (rhyming quatrains, couplets) and non-Western (meditation and praise song) modes."—Publishers Weekly

"Le Guin's poetic voice is clear and lyrical; her many fans will not be disappointed."—Pat Monaghan, Booklist

Ursula Le Guin's dazzling gifts of seeing and saying shine full force in the amazing Incredible Good Fortune. I love Le Guin's mind, the vast generosity of her language and all it invokes. Here is a book to lift the spirits of all ages of readers—give it to your favorite teenager as well as your wisest elder. It is rich, resonant, and simply wonderful."—Naomi Shihab Nye

"Ursula Le Guin, master inventor of other worlds and societies, here responds with all her senses to the things of this world. These poems are musical; in turns fierce, playful, sunlit, dark; always in her own clear voice. Nature is almost always present, either as subject or as metaphor. She writes powerfully of love, aging, and illness, and her strong social vision never wavers."—Naomi Replansky

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala; 1ST edition (March 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590303148
• ISBN-13: 978-1590303146
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,804,431 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Immense talent with respect to the use of language to evoke images and emotions, May 11, 2007

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Incredible Good Fortune: New Poems (Paperback)

Best known as an award winning writer of science fiction and fantasy, Ursula K. Le Guin is also an accomplished poet. "Incredible Good Fortune" is the latest volume of her verse to see print and continues to document her immense talent with respect to the use of language to evoke images and emotions within her reader's 'theatre of the mind' through the use of free verse expression. Poetry enthusiasts in general, and Ursula K. Le Guin's legions of fans in particular, will want to avail themselves of a copy of "Incredible Good Fortune". 'Waking in April': Drifting on the birdsong river/between no light and light/and the sleep of a man and a cat,/I wear the soft old shirt/my mother made me seventy years ago,/winter coat, wedding gown./I wonder, as it wears away to rags/and gauze, will there be a mirror/to see the naked soul in,/or only an unraveling of shadow/as the day widens/and things grow clearer.