Bafflingly effective, this new collection of poetry from the winner of the 2004 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize seems too brief and blithe to pack so much wallop. Intense and relaxed, buoyant and rueful, the singular music of Kay Ryan's poetry appeals to a wide audience. Her poems, products of an immaculately off-kilter mind, have appeared everywhere from the Sunday funnies to New York subways to the pages of The New Yorker to plaques at the zoo. The Niagara River, her third collection for the Grove Press Poetry Series that began with the publication of Elephant Rocks, promises to offer similar gems of hidden wonder.
The Niagara River: Poems (Grove Press Poetry)
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In two or three shifty sentences per short-lined poem, Ryan brazenly questions the extent to which we are in control of, and thus responsible for, our own and others' suffering. Her work, in this sixth collection, operates in an American tradition stretching from Dickinson through Stevens and Frost to Ammons and Bronk, where fidelity to the natural world works as a scrim for staging such self-exploration. Observing how we tolerate (and even invite) all kinds of limits on relationships and growth, the poet, over the course of 60-odd short lyrics, charts the false progress of cultivation: "we keep on making / the best of it as though/ ...our garden/ could be one bean/ and we'd rejoice if/ it flourishes, as/ though one bean/ could nourish us." As a group of friends float toward the inevitable falls, the Niagara River becomes a metaphor for arrogance in the face of greater forces: "we do/ know this is the/ Niagara River, but/ it is hard to remember/ what that means." Action, here, is more a way of heading off inevitable loss than claiming agency: "It's/ like some form/ of skin's developed/ in the air/ that, rather/ than have torn,/ you tear." Empathic and wryly unforgiving of the human condition, the poems are equal parts pith and punch. The effect is bracing. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“Ryan’s poems make a singular, angular music that’s not quite like any you’ve heard, with sharp edges, densities of sound and syntax that can acquire the most mysterious clarity, and rhymes that come at you in the same off-kilter way that the observations do. These poems feel as if they were built to last, and they have the passion, precision, and sheer weirdness to do so.” –Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry, from the citation accompanying The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize
“Her poems are compact, exhilarating, strange affairs, like Erik Satie miniatures or Joseph Cornell boxes. She is an anomaly in today’s literary culture: as intense and elliptical as Dickinson, as buoyant and rueful as Frost.” –J.D. McClatchy
“Ryan’s poems leave the reader elevated or changed or moved but at a loss to say exactly how this effect has been wrought. It’s like arm wrestling with the scrawny kid in the schoolyard who pins you before you know what’s happened.” –David Yezzi, Poetry
“Full-brained poems in a largely half-brained world.” –Kirkus Reviews
“It’s not Ryan’s logic that makes her poems breathe fire, it’s her illogic, delivered with calm precision, like a masterful change-up pitch.” –Kate Moos, Ruminator Review
“I can’t think of another poet who makes me laugh as often as she makes me ponder the imponderables.” –Laura Miller, Salon
“Ryan brazenly questions the extent to which we are in control of, and thus responsible for, our own and others’ suffering. Her work . . . operates in an American tradition stretching from Dickinson through Stevens and Frost to Ammons and Bronk, where fidelity to the natural world works as a scrim for staging such self-exploration. . . . Empathic and wryly unforgiving of the human condition, the poems are equal parts pith and punch. The effect is bracing.” —Publishers Weekly
“Her poems are compact, exhilarating, strange affairs, like Erik Satie miniatures or Joseph Cornell boxes. She is an anomaly in today’s literary culture: as intense and elliptical as Dickinson, as buoyant and rueful as Frost.” –J.D. McClatchy
“Ryan’s poems leave the reader elevated or changed or moved but at a loss to say exactly how this effect has been wrought. It’s like arm wrestling with the scrawny kid in the schoolyard who pins you before you know what’s happened.” –David Yezzi, Poetry
“Full-brained poems in a largely half-brained world.” –Kirkus Reviews
“It’s not Ryan’s logic that makes her poems breathe fire, it’s her illogic, delivered with calm precision, like a masterful change-up pitch.” –Kate Moos, Ruminator Review
“I can’t think of another poet who makes me laugh as often as she makes me ponder the imponderables.” –Laura Miller, Salon
“Ryan brazenly questions the extent to which we are in control of, and thus responsible for, our own and others’ suffering. Her work . . . operates in an American tradition stretching from Dickinson through Stevens and Frost to Ammons and Bronk, where fidelity to the natural world works as a scrim for staging such self-exploration. . . . Empathic and wryly unforgiving of the human condition, the poems are equal parts pith and punch. The effect is bracing.” —Publishers Weekly
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41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sublime,
By
This review is from: The Niagara River: Poems (Grove Press Poetry) (Paperback)
I am a big fan of poetry and this book did not disappoint me. I live in Australia, and therefore am not exposed to what is au courant in the US anymore [originally from the US]. I saw Kay Ryan on the Lehrer Report which is broadcast over here. She was reading from this book, and I decided to buy a copy.
The poems are earthy and touch places of the heart that elicit a sigh of recognition. It is good to read poetry that is open, uncoded and taps into our everyday experiences with such elegant simplicity.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The brief, free-verse vignettes cascade into defining, picturesque moments,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Niagara River: Poems (Grove Press Poetry) (Paperback)
Prize winning poet Kay Ryan presents The Niagara River, the latest entry in the Grove Press Poetry Series. The brief, free-verse vignettes cascade into defining, picturesque moments, perfectly capturing a thought, mote, or moment of time before thundering onward like the Niagara River itself. The result is a treat for poetry lovers of all persuasions. "Thin": How anything / is known / is so thin- / a skin of ice / over a pond / only birds might / confidently walk / upon. A bird's / worth of weight / or one bird-weight / of Wordsworth.
25 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lyrical Modern American Poems,
By
This review is from: The Niagara River: Poems (Grove Press Poetry) (Paperback)
The poetry is contempory and uses traditional elements, such as occational rhyme. Wonderful images and subjects that linger in the mind the day after reading them.
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