"In American poetry, the contest between glut and starvation is inevitably epitomized by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Between these two, Kay Ryan would of course choose Dickinson."
That Will to Divest by Kay Ryan:
Meaning: once
You've swept
the sheIves
of spoons
and plates
you kept
for guests,
it gets harder
not to also
simplify the larder,
not to dismiss
rooms, not to
divest yourself
of all the chairs
but one, not
to test what
singleness can bear,
once you've begun.
"Kay Ryan, poet laureate of the United States. To a poet like Ryan, nothing could be more of an anathema than bigness. Open 'The Best of It'- there have been great poets devoted to glut, but Ryan belongs to the other."
(I've got the 'will to divest' and have been trying to get at it all year...just can't seem to get a 'round tuit'. Do you have one? - Linda)
That Will to Divest by Kay Ryan:
Meaning: once
You've swept
the sheIves
of spoons
and plates
you kept
for guests,
it gets harder
not to also
simplify the larder,
not to dismiss
rooms, not to
divest yourself
of all the chairs
but one, not
to test what
singleness can bear,
once you've begun.
"Kay Ryan, poet laureate of the United States. To a poet like Ryan, nothing could be more of an anathema than bigness. Open 'The Best of It'- there have been great poets devoted to glut, but Ryan belongs to the other."
(I've got the 'will to divest' and have been trying to get at it all year...just can't seem to get a 'round tuit'. Do you have one? - Linda)
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