Say Uncle: Poems [Paperback]

Kay Ryan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2000

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.

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.

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; 1st edition (September 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802137172
• ISBN-13: 978-0802137173
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #610,005 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite, April 16, 2001

By 

mellowdee (Plattsburgh, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Say Uncle: Poems (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.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars what seems like a string of words can carry much weight, August 30, 2000

By 

andre salz (Quakertown, Pennsylvania USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Say Uncle: Poems (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.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "uncle!", June 8, 2004

By 

Ginger Sylvie (the dirty south) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Say Uncle: Poems (Paperback)

lyrics of moral turpitude and musical agility (the brief lines of Kay Ryan maintain their integrity), and therein lies their beauty.