From the Archives: Kay Ryan, Poet Laureate
In honor of Kay Ryan being named Poet Laureate, I searched my New Yorker archives for one of her poems. Here's her debut from the January 23, 1995 issue. Congratulations, Ms. Ryan!
Relief
We know it is close
to something lofty.
Simply getting over being sick
or finding lost property
has in it the leap,
the purge, the quick humility
of witnessing a birth --
how love seeps and retakes the earth.
There is a dreamy
wading feeling to your walk
inside the current
of restored riches,
clocks set back,
disasters averted.
-- Kay Ryan