Ryan, Kay 2006
In harmony with the rule of irony–
which requires that we harbor the enemy
on this side of the barricade–the shell
of the unborn eagle or pelican, which is made
to give protection till the great beaks can harden,
is the first thing to take up poison.
– Kay Ryan, “Soft”
Listen to Kay Ryan’s 2006 reading for the Poetry Center of Chicago:
Read this interview with Kay Ryan from the Paris Review:
Kay Ryan, The Art of Poetry No. 94
Ryan, Fairfax, California, 1996. Kay Ryan, who was named the sixteenth poet laureate of the United States in July, lives in Fairfax, California, where for more than thirty years she has taught remedial English part-time at the College of Marin at Kentfield. She is often referred to as a poe…
It seems like you could, but
you can’t go back and pull
the roots and runners and replant.
It’s all too deep for that.
You’ve overprized intention,
have mistaken any bent you’re given
for control. You thought you chose
the bean and chose the soil.
– Kay Ryan, “A Certain Kind of Eden”
Watch Kay Ryan read some of her work:
Poetry & Science: Kay Ryan Reads her Poems
“Poetry & Science: A Shared Exploration” event on October 16, 2013. C.P. Snow complained of a world in which the “two cultures” of science and the humanities have grown increasingly separate.
