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timbo001's review
5.0
Short, hard-edged poems layered with depth and erudition. I tried for years to write short poems like Ryan's and gave up.
jwmcoaching's review against another edition
4.0
After over two years of slowly making my way through this, I finally reached the end of the road. Poetry isn't necessarily my bread and butter but Ryan is an enjoyable poet for those looking to dip their toe in the water.
There were times where I definitely had my patience tried and I certainly wasn't into each and every one of these, but overall there are clever, well-written poems here. There's humor where you might expect cerebral, dry verse. Ryan is a good place to start if you're wanting to get into poetry. Thanks, Haines.
There were times where I definitely had my patience tried and I certainly wasn't into each and every one of these, but overall there are clever, well-written poems here. There's humor where you might expect cerebral, dry verse. Ryan is a good place to start if you're wanting to get into poetry. Thanks, Haines.
hyacinth_girl's review
3.0
This poet was recommended to me by my poetry TA after I had read Sylvia Plath's collected poetry. Suffice it to say that I do not like Kay Ryan nearly as much as Plath. I have to give her credit, though, because the poems I did like were clever and thought-provoking and some of them were pretty good. But overall, I don't think poets are as awesome as they used to be. I mean, Walt Whitman? He's an amazing poet and no one really writes like him anymore. Kay Ryan, though, is a good poet for her time and I definitely don't regret reading her collected works.
amyponds's review
3.0
This poetry was fairly average, and I'm not sure why Ryan has gained such acclaim. She uses the same couple metaphors, similes, and themes in free verse (as far as I can tell) for hundreds of pages. I think that there are some good lines and poems in this collection, but that nothing really spoke to me or elevated my thinking. I found it a chore to get through the last fifty or so pages, but it had a pretty strong start. Ryan may just be the victim of a biased selection, but I am not incentivized to check out any more of her work from what I've seen here.
abetterbradley's review
4.0
I love poetry. I think more people should read poetry. If you're looking for more poetry you could start with Kay Ryan and this Pulitzer Prize winning collection.
bichito_feo's review
5.0
I adore Kay Ryan--she has one of the most distinctive poetic voices of this age, and one of the most incredible gifts. In her poem "Lighthouse Keeping," she talks about how the act of keeping a light on "is intimate/and remote both/for the keeper/and those afloat." That is how her poetry feels to me. Kay Ryan's work is a light (and a port) in a storm.
alexlanz's review
I like her pithiness and the flow of thoughts, especially in any of the poems about linguistics.