The Marrow

Ursula K. Le Guin

The Marrow
Ursula K. Le Guin

There was a word inside a stone.
I tried to pry it clear,
mallet and chisel, pick and gad,
until the stone was dropping blood,
but still I could not hear
the word the stone had said.

I threw it down beside the road
among a thousand stones
and as I turned away it cried
the word aloud within my ear
and the marrow of my bones
heard, and replied.

LeGuin, Ursula K. "The Marrow." In Hard Words and Other Poems. New York: Harper & Row, 1981.