a poem should float
Kay Ryan Reflects on Role as Nation's Poet Laureate Online NewHour 3/25/09
Jeffrey Brown asks Kay Ryan whether she makes "a conscious effort to get [her poetry] down to an essence," or whether that's just the way she thinks:
KAY RYAN: It's apparently the way I think. I would like to say that, if a poem feels really dense, it isn't good. I mean, if you put it in your hand and it falls through your hand, that's no good. It's got to float.
If you have this idea of compressed language, it gives people a sense that it's going to be dense and kind of oppressive, whereas I would like to think that it can be highly selected, but not make you feel that you've just had a vitamin pill.
Jeffrey Brown asks Kay Ryan whether she makes "a conscious effort to get [her poetry] down to an essence," or whether that's just the way she thinks:
KAY RYAN: It's apparently the way I think. I would like to say that, if a poem feels really dense, it isn't good. I mean, if you put it in your hand and it falls through your hand, that's no good. It's got to float.
If you have this idea of compressed language, it gives people a sense that it's going to be dense and kind of oppressive, whereas I would like to think that it can be highly selected, but not make you feel that you've just had a vitamin pill.