Kay Ryan, named the Pulitzer Prize Winner for Poetry 2010, is just the latest in an amazing array of accolades for this wonderfully accessible, widely loved poet. She was appointed the Library of Congress’s sixteenth poet laureate from 2008 to 2010. Salon has compared her poems to “Fabergé eggs, tiny, ingenious devices that inevitably conceal some hidden wonder.” The two hundred poems in Ryan’s The Best of It offer a stunning retrospective of her work, as well as a swath of never-before-published poems of which are sure to appeal equally to longtime fans and general readers.
The Best of It: New and Selected Poems
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Ryan, the current U.S. poet laureate, may well be the oddest and wisest poet to hold that prestigious post. Her tiny, skinny poems pack a punch unlike anything else in contemporary poetry, though not unlike haiku, if haiku could be cut with a dash of Groucho Marx. This, her first retrospective volume, which also contains a book's worth of new poems, is a much-needed introduction to the work of one of our best and most accessible poets. She asks the necessary questions hiding just beneath the obvious ones: Why isn't it all/ more marked,/ why isn't every wall/ graffitied, every park tree/ stripped/... / Not why people are; why not more violent? Odd rhymes draw crystal clear relations between disparate thoughts we never realized had always gone together: As/ though our garden/ could be one bean/ and we'd rejoice if/ it flourishes, as/ though one bean/ could nourish us. Pithy poems manage to encapsulate far more than their few words should be able to hold, as in Bitter Pill, a new poem: A bitter pill/ doesn't need/ to be swallowed/ to work. Just/ reading your name/ on the bottle/ does the trick. Sassy, smart, and deep as they are hilarious, Ryan's poems are among the best. (Mar.)
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.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* This ample but representative collection should attract new readers curious about the work of America’s current poet laureate and should also satisfy those familiar with Ryan’s conversational but tightly wrought poems. Her strength lies in creating short-lined poems that slide past the reader like notes from a journal but that, unlike many such efforts, are not merely self-indulgent anecdotes or predictable bromides. Rather, readers find surprise arising from each incident or pondering, creating an effect like that of the classical Zen haiku that starts out commonplace and rises to philosophical heights. Ryan’s observation of a spider weaving begins with a comment on how “from other / angles the / fibers look / fragile,” then embeds itself in the spider’s own viewpoint, from which those fibers are “coarse ropes” requiring “heavy work” to get in place in the web. The point of this close reading of insect life reveals itself in the last lines: “It / isn’t ever / delicate / to live.” Ryan’s work is best read slowly and observing intervals between poems, for the similarity of form among them risks dulling the attention when they are read one quickly after another. Also, her work, consistently excellent as it is, deserves careful reading. --Patricia Monaghan
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
By Cal Emery
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I want to second everything John-Michael Albert says in his review and ask "Why just 3 stars, if you 'really like these poems'?"
Ryan's word play is both a constant delight and a Trojan horse for her remarkable insights. Preview as many of the poems as Amazon allows, read them slowly, be on the lookout for both her gamesmanship and her meaning. If you enjoy the preview, the rest of the volume will not disappoint.
Ryan's word play is both a constant delight and a Trojan horse for her remarkable insights. Preview as many of the poems as Amazon allows, read them slowly, be on the lookout for both her gamesmanship and her meaning. If you enjoy the preview, the rest of the volume will not disappoint.
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I'm a graduate student who enjoys reading but was never interested in poetry. I discovered Kay Ryan after reading a New Yorker review which included a few lines that (unlike almost anything I had ever read before) really drew me in -- so much that, after reading a few more of Ryan's poems that I found online, I went out and bought this book.
It's sort of hard to express how grateful I am to have discovered Ryan's poems. In english classes in high school and college, I was generally bored with poetry, I couldn't really get into it. But for some reason Ryan's poems were completely accessible to me -- I find them almost impossible not to enjoy. I think their brevity makes them approachable for an unseasoned poetry reader. More importantly, the sly use of language (lots of almost-rhymes), and the fertile ideas and deep wisdom that emerge with re-reading them is simply an absolute joy. I had no idea I could get this sort of satisfaction out of poetry, and since discovering Kay Ryan, I've branched out and discovered that I can get the same kind of enjoyment from other poetry as well.
The poems are so short I've actually memorized some of them and have occasionally shared them with friends and family (when doing so didn't seem unbearably pretentious) and, in my experience, other poetic novices have been similarly hooked by the lure of Ryan's verse. As such, I would strongly recommend this book for anyone who might benefit from discovering for the first time the unique joy of reading poetry.
It's sort of hard to express how grateful I am to have discovered Ryan's poems. In english classes in high school and college, I was generally bored with poetry, I couldn't really get into it. But for some reason Ryan's poems were completely accessible to me -- I find them almost impossible not to enjoy. I think their brevity makes them approachable for an unseasoned poetry reader. More importantly, the sly use of language (lots of almost-rhymes), and the fertile ideas and deep wisdom that emerge with re-reading them is simply an absolute joy. I had no idea I could get this sort of satisfaction out of poetry, and since discovering Kay Ryan, I've branched out and discovered that I can get the same kind of enjoyment from other poetry as well.
The poems are so short I've actually memorized some of them and have occasionally shared them with friends and family (when doing so didn't seem unbearably pretentious) and, in my experience, other poetic novices have been similarly hooked by the lure of Ryan's verse. As such, I would strongly recommend this book for anyone who might benefit from discovering for the first time the unique joy of reading poetry.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By bookkook
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'm just half through with the book however I am enjoying it so much I feel compelled to post.
As a reader I deeply want to develop critical skills for reading poetry, and to have the same experience that I've had with good books, which is to finish with some insight that I can apply to my life and some emotion that I remember long after the book is shelved (or filed, these days). Poetry has eluded me for the most part- I've been very happy with some poems, the majority of them confuse me or leave me nonplussed. This has been a life long struggle for me. It's annoying to feel as if you don't "get it", in any context.
These poems are a literal representation of what the poet sees, amazingly devoid of emotion for the most part - the reader is invited to react from personal experience. I clearly understand what she is describing on every line, and in most poems I can relate and I am moved. When I have no personal basis to relate to the poem I am still happy to view clear expression of the language, rather like a painting of somewhere I've not been to yet.
Another reviewer here suggested taking advantage of the preview before purchasing - I took the advice, and will take this opportunity to affirm the suggestion, and heartily recommend this book, even for poetry novices.
As a reader I deeply want to develop critical skills for reading poetry, and to have the same experience that I've had with good books, which is to finish with some insight that I can apply to my life and some emotion that I remember long after the book is shelved (or filed, these days). Poetry has eluded me for the most part- I've been very happy with some poems, the majority of them confuse me or leave me nonplussed. This has been a life long struggle for me. It's annoying to feel as if you don't "get it", in any context.
These poems are a literal representation of what the poet sees, amazingly devoid of emotion for the most part - the reader is invited to react from personal experience. I clearly understand what she is describing on every line, and in most poems I can relate and I am moved. When I have no personal basis to relate to the poem I am still happy to view clear expression of the language, rather like a painting of somewhere I've not been to yet.
Another reviewer here suggested taking advantage of the preview before purchasing - I took the advice, and will take this opportunity to affirm the suggestion, and heartily recommend this book, even for poetry novices.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Food for the soul
lip-smacking poems, all of them ! Kay is a rollicking good read. Come and get it, you'll be glad you did.
Published 2 months ago by Rosemary Powell
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Undisputed Poet
Read from start to finish, then read it again. There is no poem that is not a delight to the mind, especially for those that hunger after great poetry. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Cathy Jewell
5.0 out of 5 stars
Here's the reason(s) she was our Poet Laureate....
These intelligent, witty evocative poems are a delight for the mind and soul...oughta be required reading (IMNHO - "in my never humble opinion")
Published 6 months ago by Tommi Whitfield
2.0 out of 5 stars
poems over my head
I have written some short primitive poems and thought I would find this book of value. I did not. It is probably world class to those with a greater intellect but I found very... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Van Traveler
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing after the first poem.
Yep, you read right--the first poem. I bought this book solely based on the first one, "Odd Blocks," because it had a lot of depth to it, a ton of metaphor and distinction and... Read more
Published 18 months ago by T. Harward
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Pleasure of Kay Ryan
The Best of It: New and Collected Poems of Kay Ryan is a must on any poet lover's bookstand. I am reading it slowly as I want to savor every word. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Sara M. Robinson
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Recent United States Poet Laureate
In 1936, the Library of Congress received a large endowment for the "maintenance of a chair of Poetry of the English language". Read more
Published 20 months ago by Robin Friedman
2.0 out of 5 stars
The Best of It--just isn't
Poetry needs to be more than witty. It needs to be compelling and heartbreaking, inspiring, and soaring. Expecting to be inspired, to be tearful, to be moved, I wasn't. Ech. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Observer One
4.0 out of 5 stars
Admirable Craft
Before buying this book, I had never read poetry by Kay Ryan. Being introduced to her poetry was a good experience. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Ohioan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Daily Surprises
I've been reading "The Best of It" in little daily doses so as to lengthen my enjoyment. And I've found something unexpected and surprising at every turn. Read more
Published on May 20, 2011 by Black Bird
