Poetry Friday -- Intention

INTENTION

by Kay Ryan

Intention doesn't sweeten.

It should be picked young

and eaten. Sometimes only hours

separate the cotyledon

from the wooden plant.

Then if you want to eat it,

you can't.

Note to self: don't pave the roads to anywhere with good intentions. Act, do, decide, speak, be...without hesitation.

Jama has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at Jama's Alphabet Soup. 

The July-December roundup schedule is now complete! Thank you, Irene, for taking the Christmas Day roundup!

Poetry Friday -- The Best of It

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Heinz-Eberhard Boden

The Best of It 

by Kay Ryan

However carved up
or pared down we get,
we keep on making
the best of it as though
it doesn't matter that
our acre's down to
a square foot.

(the rest of the poem is here)

My acre is feeling like it's down to more like a square inch, but I'm making the best of it.

Paul has the Poetry Friday roundup at These 4 Corners.

Poetry Friday -- Poets Laureate -- And a GIVEAWAY!

Flickr Creative Commons Photo from the Boston Public Library

WE'RE BUILDING THE SHIP
AS WE SAIL IT

The first fear
being drowning, the
ship's first shape
was a raft, which
was hard to unflatten
after that didn't
happen. It's awkward
to have to do one's
planning in extremis
in the early years--
so hard to hide later:
sleekening the hull,
making things
more gracious.

©Kay Ryan, 2010
in The Best of It: New and Selected Poems



(I think this is perhaps the story of my year...)


Kay Ryan is one of the three US Poets Laureate I've met in person (also Ted Kooser and Billy Collins). These are the "live" autographs in my collection of books signed by Poets Laureate. This week, my birthday package from my brother arrived, and three more autographs have been added to my collection: Daniel Hoffman (1973-74, totally new to me), W.S. Merwin (2010-11, a book of his short stories from SW France), and...

Kay Ryan's newest collection, The Best of It: New and Selected Poems, First Edition, hardback.

So here's where we get to the give-away. I already own Kay Ryan's new collection...in paperback. Since I have a signed (first edition) hardback, I think YOU should have the paperback edition! Sunday night, I'll randomly choose from the commenters and I'll send it to YOU!

Updated: Sunday, 9:17 PM. The random number generator at random.org picked #8, which is Violet Nesdoly! You are the winner of the Kay Ryan book!

Buffy has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week at Buffy's Blog.

Two dates are One date is left on Check out the roundup calendar for the next 6 months!! Now that the calendar is complete, I'll put the html code in the files on the Kidlitosphere Yahoo group and into the calendar there, and send the dates to the Kidlitosphere web page webmistress. Shoot me an email if you want me to send you the code for your blog's sidebar.