Kay Ryan
Born in California in 1945 and acknowledged as one of the most original voices in the contemporary landscape, Kay Ryan is the author of several books of poetry, including Flamingo Watching (2006), The Niagara River (2005), and Say Uncle (2000). Her book The Best of It: New and Selected Poems (2010) won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Ryan's tightly compressed, rhythmically dense poetry is often compared to that of Emily Dickinson and Marianne Moore; however, Ryan’s often barbed wit and unique facility with “recombinant” rhyme has earned her the status of one of the great living American poets, and led to her appointment as U.S. Poet Laureate in 2008. She held the position for two terms, using the appointment to champion community colleges like the one in Marin County, California where she and her partner Carol Adair taught for over thirty years. In an interview with the Washington City Paper at the end of tenure, Ryan called herself a “whistle-blower” who “advocated for much underpraised and underfunded community colleges across the nation.”
Ryan’s surprising laureateship capped years of outsider-status in the poetry world. Her quizzical, philosophical, often mordant poetry is a product of years of thought. Ryan has said that her poems do not start with imagery or sound, but rather develop “the way an oyster does, with an aggravation.” Critic Meghan O’Rourke has written of her work: “Each poem twists around and back upon its argument like a river retracing its path; they are didactic in spirit, but a bedrock wit supports them.” “Sharks’ Teeth” displays that meandering approach to her subject matter, which, Ryan says, “gives my poems a coolness. I can touch things that are very hot because I’ve given them some distance.”
Kay Ryan is the recipient of several major awards, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. She has received the Union League Poetry Prize and the Maurice English Poetry Award, as well as the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Since 2006 she has served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
“The day misspent,the love misplaced,has inside itthe seed of redemption.Nothing is exemptfrom resurrection.”
“LedgeBirds that lovehigh treesand windsand ridingflailing brancheshate ledgesas griplessand narrow,so that a tailis not justno advantagebut ridiculous,mashed verticalagainst the wall.You will haveseen the waya bird who fallson skimpy placeslifts into the airagain in seconds --a gift deniedthe rest of uswhen our portionisn't generous.”
“It's important to have your private enjoyments because sometimes that's all we have.”
“Failure: the renewable resource.”
“A thing cannot be delivered enough times:this is the rule of dogs for whom there are no fool's errands.To loop out and come back is good all alone.It's gravy to carry a ball or a bone.”
“CROWNToo much rainloosens trees.In the hills giant oaksfall upon their knees.You can touch partsyou have no right to—places only birdsshould fly to.”
“Bait GoatThere is adistance wheremagnets pull,we feel, havingheld them back. Likewisethere is adistance wherewords attract.Set one outlike a bait goat and wait and seven otherswill approach.But watch out:roving packs canpull your wordaway. You find your stake yanked and some rough bunchto thank.”
“Tenderness and RotTenderness and rotshare a border.And rot is anaggressive neighborwhose iridescencekeeps creeping over.No lessonscan be drawnfrom this however.One is nottwo countries.One is not meatcorrupting.It is importantto stay sweetand loving.”
“A too closely watched flower/blossoms the wrong color./Excess attention to the jonquil/turns it gentian. Flowers/need it tranquil to get/their hues right. Some/only open at midnight.”
“If we have not struggled/as hard as we can/at our strongest/how will we sense/the shape of our losses/or know what sustains/us longest or name/what change costs us,/saying how strange/it is that one sector/of the self can step in/for another in trouble,/how loss activates/a latent double, how/we can feed/as upon nectar/upon need?”
“One can't work/by limelight.//A bowlful/right at/one's elbow//produces no/more than/a baleful/glow against/the kitchen table.//The fruit purveyor's/whole unstable/pyramid//doesn't equal/what daylight did.”
“Even in climes/without snow/one cannot go/foward sometimes./Things test you./You are part of/the Donners or/part of the rescue:/a muleteer in/earflaps; a/formerly hearty/Midwestern farmer/perhaps. Both/parties trapped/within sight/of the pass.”
“The satisfactions/of agreement are/immediate as sugar--/a melting of the/granular, a syrup/that lingers, shared/not singular./Many prefer it.”
“Gaps don't/just happen./There is a/generative element/inside them,/a welling motion/as when cold/waters shoulder/up through/warmer oceans./And where gaps/choose to widen,/coordinates warp,/even in places/constant since/the oldest maps.”
“Forgetting takes space./Forgotten matters displace/as much anything else as/anything else. We must/skirt unlabeled crates/as thought it made sense/and take them when we go/to other states.”
“Not even waste/is inviolate./The day misspent,/the love misplaced,/has inside it/the seed of redemption./Nothing is exempt from resurrection.”
“Action creates/a taste/for itself.”
“In the hills giant oaksFall upon their kneesYou can touch parts You have no right to”
“I have tried to live very quietly, so I could be happy.”
“Weak ForcesI enjoy an accumulatingfaith in weak forces--a weak faith, of course,easily shaken, but alsoeasily regained--in whatstarts to drift: all theslow untrainings of the mind,the sift left of resolvesustained too long, thestrange internal shiftby which there's no knowingif this is the raod takenor untaken. There are softaffinities, possibly electrical;lint-like congeries; moonlithints; asymmetrical pinkglowy spots that are nothe defeat of something,I don't think.”
“It’s hard notto jump outinstead ofwaiting to befound. It’shard to bealone so longand then hearsomeone comearound. It’slike some formof skin’s developedin the airthat, ratherthan have torn,you tear."Hide and Seek”