A review by ceallaighsbooks
The Best of It: New and Selected Poems by Kay Ryan

challenging lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

“TRAIN-TRACK FIGURE”
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.

TITLE—The Best of It
AUTHOR—Kay Ryan 
PUBLISHED—2010 (with some poems published as early as 1994)
PUBLISHER—Grove Press (new york)

GENRE—poetry
MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—life’s rhythms and cycles, the beauty & fascination in the mundane, Nature poetry (esp. animals, weather, & landscapes), science poetry (esp. physics, archaeology, & astronomy), human history & legacy, philosophy & psychology, compelling wordplay

WRITING STYLE—🌕🌕🌕🌕🌖
COLLECTION/FLOW—🌕🌕🌕🌕🌚
BONUS ELEMENT/S—Ryan’s Nature poetry was especially precious and perceptive.
PHILOSOPHY—🌕🌕🌕🌕🌚

“PAIRED THINGS”
Who, who had only seen wings,
could extrapolate the
skinny sticks of things
birds use for land,
the backward way they bend,
the silly way they stand?
And who, only studying
bird tracks in the sand,
could think those little forks
had decamped on the wind?
So many paired things seem odd.
Who ever would have dreamed
the broad winged raven of despair
would quit the air and go
bandy-legged upon the ground,
a common crow?

My thoughts:
A different kind of poetry collection than what I usually pick up but I read her ELEPHANT ROCKS a couple years ago and had wanted to read more from her so when I spotted this collection at a library book sale I decided it was a sign and I Ryan’s style and the themes and content of her work on this reading utterly absorbing. I especially loved the subtle rhythms of her language and the structure of the poems.

I would recommend this book to readers who are newer to poetry and maybe tend to be more science or “left-brain” oriented. This book is best read slowly—digesting just a few poems each day.

Final note: I’ll definitely be adding more Kay Ryan to my TBR in the future!

“A CERTAIN KIND OF EDEN”
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.
You even thought you abandoned
one or two gardens. But those things
keep growing where we put them—
if we put them at all.
A certain kind of Eden holds us thrall.
Even the one vine that tendrils out alone
in time turns on its own impulse,
twisting back down its upward course
a strong and then a stronger rope,
the greenest saddest strongest
kind of hope.

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

Further Reading—
  • Aimee Nezhukumatathil
  • Robert Frost—TBR