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| Flickr Creative Commons Photo by cathyse97 |
PAIRED THINGS
by Kay Ryan
could extrapolate the
skinny sticks of things
birds use for land,
the backward way they bend,
the silly way they stand?
(the rest of the poem is at The Poetry Foundation)
Ed has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Think Kid, Think.
Is it foolish to even say, "I love Kay Ryan"? Part of me thinks "Who doesn't love Kay Ryan's work? That's why she was Poet Laureate," but then I read something like this and I'm struck all over again by how she trips along all conversational and down-to-earth right until the end and then you go back and reread and see how it is that she creates those lifting feelings out of next to nothing, out of not trying too hard.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mary Lee--I hope you didn't choose this poem out of any despair!
No despair whatsoever! Just wonder and awe...for Kay Ryan's poetry, for bird legs, for all of the natural world.
DeleteMy soundtrack this morning (2 hour delay because of dense fog) is selections from Arvo Part's Spiegel im Spiegel. If you don't know the title song from this album, go listen now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8ZScAdV8qE
Since I'm going with a class next week into the mountains, I think this will be a poem to share, to pique their wonder just a little bit more. We want them to look so closely... Thanks Mary Lee!
ReplyDeleteI am a fan of wings.
ReplyDeleteStunning, especiallty with the Spiegel im Spiegel soundtrack playing as one reads.
ReplyDeleteExquisite poem!
ReplyDeleteI am in awe of how Ryan juxtaposes close observation of the physical with the bam! of the emotion at the end. Thank you for sharing, Mary Lee!
ReplyDeleteCatherine
Love this poem, Mary Lee, its devotion to seeing, the backward bending, the oddness of paired things. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteOff to listen to Spiegel im Spiegel now! Thanks for the poetry/song match-up :-)
ReplyDelete