Filled with wry logic and a magical, unpredictable musicality, Kay Ryan's poems continue to generate excitement with their frequent appearances in The New Yorker and other leading periodicals. Say Uncle, Ryan's fifth collection, is filled with the same hidden connections, the same slyness and almost gleeful detachment that has delighted readers of her earlier books. Compact, searching, and oddly beautiful, these poems, in the words of Dana Gioia, "take the shape of an idea clarifying itself." "A poetry collection that marries wit and wisdom more brilliantly than any I know.... Poetry as statement and aphorism is rarely heartbreaking, but reading these poems I find myself continually ambushed by a fundamental sorrow, one that hides behind a surface that interweaves sound and sense in immaculately interesting ways." -- Jane Hirshfield, Common Boundary; "The first thing you notice about her poems is an elbow-to-the-ribs playfulness." -- Patricia Holt, San Francisco Chronicle.
Say Uncle: Poems
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Witty, charming, serious and delightful, Ryan's fifth book of poems is also remarkably specialized. Beginning from single observations or sayings or from single facts of science or folklore, the poems seek compression, consonance, cute rhymes, and moral lessons; usually they stop short on single remarks. All are brief, irregularly rhymed, arranged in very tight acoustic patterns, and confined to very short lines (normally of no more than six syllables). Of "The Fabric of Life," Ryan begins, "It is very stretchy./ We know that, even if/ many details remain/ sketchy." "Agreement" (in a delectable set of off-rhymes) becomes "a syrup/ that lingers, shared/ not singular./ Many prefer it." Ryan, in contrast, prefers to disagree: her poems stand up, quietly, to the received ideas she takes up or inverts. These quick, clipped poems become protests against complacency, laziness and self-pity (which can be prevented) and decay, death, entropy (which cannot). "The Old Cosmologists," Ryan explains, act "as if change were not/ something that just happens/ at certain stages/ but a private test failed/ moment by moment/ as age is." If that judgment is ambiguous, "The Pass" is not: "Things test you./ You are part of/ the Donners or/ part of the rescue." Ryan prefers to carve molehills from mountains, to garnish her ethical lessons with thinly sliced bitterness; she instructs and delights by refusing to raise her voice. Her casual manner and nods to the wisdom tradition might endear her to fans of A.R. Ammons or link her distantly to Emily Dickinson. But her tight structures, odd rhymes and ethical judgments place her more firmly in the tradition of Marianne Moore and, latterly, Amy Clampitt. Those poets, though, wrote many kinds of poems: Ryan, in this volume, writes just one kind. It is, however, a kind worth looking out forAwell crafted, understated, funny and smart. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Ryan is twice winner of the Pushcart Prize, and her formal verse is well known to readers of such magazines as The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, and Paris Review. In her new collection of droll and pithy poems (following Elephant Rocks), Ryan once again pays homage to the craft of poetry. An exquisite rhyme scheme and word sounds like jonquil, tranquil, attention, and gentian (see the poem "Closely Watched Things") add whimsical padding to what is, for the most part, crystalline language with no room for the extraneous. Ryan addresses this economy in the poem "Blunt" when she says, "If we could love/ the blunt/ and not/ the point/ we would/ almost constantly/ have what we want." Recommended for public libraries and poetry discussion groups.DAnn K. van Buren, Riverdale Country Sch., New York
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
By mellowdee
Format:Paperback
Transparent, yet fathomless as a crystal ball, these poems continue to speak after countless readings, not yet yielding up their secrets. Incredibly rich, they go down oh-so-easy, a verbal tiramisu. Small, yet amazingly dense, like gold nuggets. Impeccable logic, impeccable use of language. Gorgeous, and mysterious. Moving and inspiring. Kay Ryan delivers on William Carlos Williams' famous lines: It is difficult/to get the news from poems/yet men die every day/for lack/of what is found there.
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful
By andre salz
Format:Paperback
These poems insist on their verticality as they run down the page. Their weight and glow however resides in little unexpected turns in meaning that place us squarrely in the thouroughly ambiguous world we live in. We are told that wasted time and other common negative experiences need to be accepted as maybe something like a musical pause, as crucial as the rest of the notes to the sound of the music. Reading these poems I can feel a connection with the anecdotes of Porchia or Francis Ponge's underrated work. Ryan's voice is totaly unique but I can't help recalling also Elisabeth Bishop and that marvelous poem about the little marvel stove, so full of forgiveness and yet cooly tight as a work of art.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
lyrics of moral turpitude and musical agility (the brief lines of Kay Ryan maintain their integrity), and therein lies their beauty.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Supple and surprising
Each poem in this book is compressed and compact, yet deep and resonant. The lines seem almost cropped, so that the thin linear band of text bridges a chasm of empty white paper. Read more
Published 18 months ago by E. Strickenburg
4.0 out of 5 stars
not one miss in this collection
A beautiful command of texture and meter, with a clarity that so many avoid these days. There is a depth in her work that it's simplicity belies. The work is done for you, enjoy.
Published on May 14, 2009 by psalm94
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Poet of the Elements
Kay Ryan always speaks in a clear voice. With the acuity that I recall from a young soul gazing through creekwater at all the life that flows and hides under rocks.
Published on October 14, 2008 by Colleen P.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best
This is Kay Ryan's best collection. If you added The Niagara River (the poem itself) to this collection, it would be complete beyond belief.
Published on January 4, 2008 by J. Wahlgren
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding collection...
This was the first book of Kay Ryan's poetry I ever read, and I couldn't put it down... and even once finished, I'm still picking it up to read over and soak up again.
Published on February 6, 2007 by Robert Browning
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ryan's best to date.
Between the subtle rhyme, brevity, and insight, this is by far my favorite of Kay Ryan's books. Blandeur (included in this volume) has been included in literature textbooks... Read more
Published on November 25, 2004 by Zebulon C. Huset
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not blown away
I bought this book after reading two 5 star reviews. I am amazed that we read the same book. These poems are cute and witty, sometimes provocative (e.g. Read more
Published on August 3, 2003
