Post by bezhang38 on May 20, 2012 16:04:49 GMT -5
Kay Ryan grew up in the small towns of the San Joaquin Valley of Central California. Poetry was, by no means, “in her blood”; her mother was an elementary school teacher for a short period, and her father was an oil driller. Although Kay Ryan was an “outsider” as a child, she remains an outsider to the “institutionalized world of contemporary American poetry.” She never attended a prestigious writing program or took a creative writing course but instead rose to prominence through decades of self-discipline.
Ryan’s immediately distinctive and tightly woven verse is rooted in her unique explorations of common language, ideas, objects, and experiences. For instance, one of her poems entitled, “We’re Building the Ship as We Sail It,” not only plays upon the idiom, “hoist your sail when the wind is fair,” but also explores the grace that comes much later in life after the “awkward early years” of obscurity. This theme perfectly describes Ryan’s rise to poetry. At the age of 19 after the death of her father, Ryan automatically began to translate literature into verse and wrote her first poem. A few years later, however, she became a teacher but was not entirely satisfied. While she continued to teach, she remained internally conflicted and realized she had “too much tolerance” for this “unpleasant situation,” so she decided to embark on a 4,000 mile cross-country bike ride to clear her mind at the age of 29. While passing through the Colorado Rockies, “unbridgeable distances collapsed” and she suddenly realized that her true passion in life was writing poetry.
Despite receiving zero critical attention after her first two books of poetry were published, Ryan continued to write short poems even when long narratives became the popular trend. Finally, people began to notice the irregular rhyme, wordplay, wit, and “fillip of extra irony” of her poems that were typically under twenty lines. Acclaimed poet and literary critic, Dana Gioia, compares Kay Ryan to Emily Dickinson and Marianne Moore, who all “share a delight in the quirks of logic and language.”
While Ryan’s poems reflect on anything from the “Gordian Knot” to “Zeno’s paradox” to “Miners’ Canaries,” she tends to expose the imperfections of society in her poetry. In a poem written after her mother’s death, Ryan writes, “things [in life] shouldn’t be so hard,” so people can be forever remembered after the “grand and damaging parade.” In addition, she believes that “there are so many wrong thoughts we refuse to release” because “insult is injury taken personally,” but we, in society, need insult to say "we must stop this" unwanted behavior. Ryan “tests the edges of the breathable” by challenging readers to read her poetry multiple times to rouse them from the “private expectations” typically formed when reading poems. Thus, she embodies her own style and content that are unlike those of any other poet.
Ryan remains extremely modest about her poetry and believes that “almost everything [she] writes fails,” but I believe she has successfully hoisted her own sail. She has won countless awards and honors, including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the MacArthur Fellowship, and served as the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2008 to 2010. Ryan “can’t work by lime light,” so she currently lives a quiet life in Marin County, California. She has traveled across the country to be here with us today, so please join me in welcoming Ms. Kay Ryan.
566 words
Ryan’s immediately distinctive and tightly woven verse is rooted in her unique explorations of common language, ideas, objects, and experiences. For instance, one of her poems entitled, “We’re Building the Ship as We Sail It,” not only plays upon the idiom, “hoist your sail when the wind is fair,” but also explores the grace that comes much later in life after the “awkward early years” of obscurity. This theme perfectly describes Ryan’s rise to poetry. At the age of 19 after the death of her father, Ryan automatically began to translate literature into verse and wrote her first poem. A few years later, however, she became a teacher but was not entirely satisfied. While she continued to teach, she remained internally conflicted and realized she had “too much tolerance” for this “unpleasant situation,” so she decided to embark on a 4,000 mile cross-country bike ride to clear her mind at the age of 29. While passing through the Colorado Rockies, “unbridgeable distances collapsed” and she suddenly realized that her true passion in life was writing poetry.
Despite receiving zero critical attention after her first two books of poetry were published, Ryan continued to write short poems even when long narratives became the popular trend. Finally, people began to notice the irregular rhyme, wordplay, wit, and “fillip of extra irony” of her poems that were typically under twenty lines. Acclaimed poet and literary critic, Dana Gioia, compares Kay Ryan to Emily Dickinson and Marianne Moore, who all “share a delight in the quirks of logic and language.”
While Ryan’s poems reflect on anything from the “Gordian Knot” to “Zeno’s paradox” to “Miners’ Canaries,” she tends to expose the imperfections of society in her poetry. In a poem written after her mother’s death, Ryan writes, “things [in life] shouldn’t be so hard,” so people can be forever remembered after the “grand and damaging parade.” In addition, she believes that “there are so many wrong thoughts we refuse to release” because “insult is injury taken personally,” but we, in society, need insult to say "we must stop this" unwanted behavior. Ryan “tests the edges of the breathable” by challenging readers to read her poetry multiple times to rouse them from the “private expectations” typically formed when reading poems. Thus, she embodies her own style and content that are unlike those of any other poet.
Ryan remains extremely modest about her poetry and believes that “almost everything [she] writes fails,” but I believe she has successfully hoisted her own sail. She has won countless awards and honors, including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the MacArthur Fellowship, and served as the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2008 to 2010. Ryan “can’t work by lime light,” so she currently lives a quiet life in Marin County, California. She has traveled across the country to be here with us today, so please join me in welcoming Ms. Kay Ryan.
566 words