Kay Ryan

Biography

Kay Ryan is a former US Poet Laureate. Her poetry collections include Erratic Facts (Grove, 2015) and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Best of It: New and Selected Poems (Grove, 2010). Her many awards include a MacArthur “Genius” grant and the National Humanities Medal. A resident of Marin County, Ryan grew up in the small towns of the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert, California.

See Work

POETRY / Summer 2016

Only the Beginning of the Sharpness

By Kay Ryan

It’s hard for
the master
sharpener after
all that work
to have the shaft
taken for the point.

POETRY / Summer 2016

Even on the Greatest Subjects Too Much Can Be Said

By Kay Ryan

You can oversell
the sea, say, or
the way we miss

POETRY / Summer 2015

Those Places

By Kay Ryan

They are not
imaginary but
accessible only
intermittently.

POETRY / Summer 2015

Dry Things

By Kay Ryan

The water level
comes up when
you throw in
stones, bricks…

POETRY / Summer 2015

Almost

By Kay Ryan

The mind 
likes the squeeze 
of chutes and channels.