7.17.2008

Poet laureate

Kay Ryan has been named the nation's 16th poet laureate by the Library of Congress.

THINGS SHOULDN'T BE SO HARD

A life should leave
deep tracks:
ruts where she
went out and back
to get the mail
or move the hose
around the yard;
where she used to
stand before the sink,
a worn-out place;
beneath her hand
the china knobs
rubbed down to
white pastilles;
the switch she
used to feel for
in the dark
almost erased.
Her things should
keep her marks.
The passage
of a life should show;
it should abrade.
And when life stops,
a certain space—
however small —
should be left scarred
by the grand and
damaging parade.
Things shouldn't
be so hard.

2 comments:

Rhea said...

I hadn't heard of her, but that makes it exciting. We will all be familiar with her work before too long.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for letting us know about this.