Sunday Morning 2023 Aug 13- books I am currently reading

 Yesterday, I carried around one of Kay Ryan's books THE BEST OF IT.  (New York: Grove Press, 2010).  I was introduced to Kay Ryan several years ago when a lady from the Senior Center in Iowa City read a poem by her.  I think it was called The Elephant in the Room.  Kay Ryan writes very short poems.  In general they are much shorter than the ones my poetry group reads out loud.  You can watch Kay Ryan read some of her poetry on You Tube.  This is a treat--being able to see and hear a poet read their own work.  In general, they are pretty good readers.

I like Kay Ryan because she writes about very common things that she has clearly spent time looking at studiously.  Alternatively, it could be that what seems like inane things to most people, must strike her profoundly and then she writes about it.  I'm drawn to Ryan's poetry because our minds are so very similar. If I wrote poetry it would be exactly like hers.   I also am entertained by the most inane things, that are not really inane at all.  I also believe all of life's mysteries can be ascertained in any single object.  There is a phase that comes to my mind--"all the World in a Grain of Sand".  (William Blake said it in a poem).

TRAIN-TRACK FIGURE

by Kay Ryan

Imagine a 

train-track figure

made of sliver

over sliver of

between-car

vision, each 

slice too brief

to add detail

or deepen: that 

could be a hat

if it's a person

if it's a person

if it's a person.

Just the same

scant information

timed to supplant

the same scant 

information.

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To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

         william blake