The Best of It: New and Selected Poems - Kay Ryan

“Language is matter / leafing like a book,” Kay Ryan states in “Composition.” Ryan’s poems look thin but they’re far from anemic. Her ability to break open a theme with a well-placed word or a cleverly chosen image is the hallmark of her work, as is her deft talent at luring the reader into a poem with a wink and nod. Breeze through the fifteen lines of “Say Uncle” and you giggle to yourself at her wit; read it again and you realize Ryan rewards your persistence with a poem about perseverance. Within the elev- en lines of “Thin,” Ryan raises epistemologi- cal questions; in the nineteen-line “Easter Island,” she lyrically weaves existential matters to material concerns. Both poems draw goosebumps. A compendium of work that ardent fans will love and the unfamiliar should embrace, is there any doubt The Best Of It: New And Selected Poems (Grove, $14.95) is an apt and deserving choice for this year’s Pulitzer?