Poetry Friday--Introducing Our Newest National Poet Laureate!

A few weeks back, the Library of Congress announced the appointment of a new Poet Laureate, Kay Ryan. Ryan replaces the 15th Poet Laureate, NH's own Charles Simic. Ms. Ryan's official title is "Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2008-2009."

We don't have any individual books of her poems, but she is represented in several anthologies including Twentieth-Century American Poetry [811.5 TWE].
from the Library of Congress page, Kay Ryan: Online Resources
Let's take a look at a Kay Ryan poem:

from A Hundred Bolts of Satin

All you
have to lose
is one
connection
and the mind
uncouples
all the way back.
It seems
to have been
a train.
There seems
to have been
a track.

Read or listen to the rest here.

In the anthology referenced above, the editor states,

...Ryan has found a way of exploring ideas without losing either the musical impulse or imaginative intensity necessary to lyric poetry. She is one of the genuinely original talents in contemporary American poetry.

I wish her all the best in her new post!