酷我-北美枫

[ericcoliu]

Poem of the Week

Poem text of The Niagara River by Kay Ryan

(On 17 July, she was selected to become the sixteenth Poet Laureate of the United States in autumn 2008 succeeding Charles Simic)

As though
the river were
a floor, we position
our table and chairs
upon it, eat, and
have conversation.
As it moves along,
we notice--as
calmly as though
dining room paintings
were being replaced--
the changing scenes
along the shore. We
do know, we do
know this is the
Niagara River, but
it is hard to remember
what that means.


Review:

In a poetry world populated with pretense of sentiments, fatty images, and tongue-twisting rhythms, Kay Ryan’s poems, Minimalist in feel and tidy in construction, “strip language/ make it hold for/ a minute,” necessitating multiple readings. The title poem of her latest poetry book, The Niagara River, possesses something characteristic of her wished-for miracle: a “Backward Miracle” that is “a sacramental/ refusal to multiply/ reclaiming the/ single loaf/ and the single/ fish thereby.”

The Niagara River is a short, sharp, and metaphorical poem on the seeming tangibility of human-world relationships. Kay Ryan uses the floor metaphor for the world-famous river to express her amazement at our indifference to the ever-changing world around us (“we notice -- as/ calmly as though/ dining room paintings/ were being replaced --/ the changing scenes/ along the shore”). Embarking on the Niagara River journey of life, we go dining and chatting our way through life without looking around and ahead, pretending that the churning temporal river is a stable floor.

In the concluding lines, she implies the things we think of as most tangible are in fact incomprehensible to us and suggests that we have few clues about where we are headed. Life holds us up; we float along on it, shielded by our calmly eating and chatting along the journey. By challenging us as tourists of the river journey to think about what’s right in front of us, The Niagara River opens our eyes to the tangible -- yet still somehow inexplicable -- world around us. Kay Ryan firmly locates her poem on this fast-moving river of life.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Poem of the Week

Poem text of The Niagara River by Kay Ryan

(On 17 July, she was selected to become the sixteenth Poet Laureate of the United States in autumn 2008 succeeding Charles Simic)

As though
the river were
a floor, we position
our table and chairs
upon it, eat, and
have conversation.
As it moves along,
we notice--as
calmly as though
dining room paintings
were being replaced--
the changing scenes
along the shore. We
do know, we do
know this is the
Niagara River, but
it is hard to remember
what that means.


Review:

In a poetry world populated with pretense of sentiments, fatty images, and tongue-twisting rhythms, Kay Ryan’s poems, Minimalist in feel and tidy in construction, “strip language/ make it hold for/ a minute,” necessitating multiple readings. The title poem of her latest poetry book, The Niagara River, possesses something characteristic of her wished-for miracle: a “Backward Miracle” that is “a sacramental/ refusal to multiply/ reclaiming the/ single loaf/ and the single/ fish thereby.”

The Niagara River is a short, sharp, and metaphorical poem on the seeming tangibility of human-world relationships. Kay Ryan uses the floor metaphor for the world-famous river to express her amazement at our indifference to the ever-changing world around us (“we notice -- as/ calmly as though/ dining room paintings/ were being replaced --/ the changing scenes/ along the shore”). Embarking on the Niagara River journey of life, we go dining and chatting our way through life without looking around and ahead, pretending that the churning temporal river is a stable floor.

In the concluding lines, she implies the things we think of as most tangible are in fact incomprehensible to us and suggests that we have few clues about where we are headed. Life holds us up; we float along on it, shielded by our calmly eating and chatting along the journey. By challenging us as tourists of the river journey to think about what’s right in front of us, The Niagara River opens our eyes to the tangible -- yet still somehow inexplicable -- world around us. Kay Ryan firmly locates her poem on this fast-moving river of life.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[ericcoliu]

The Niagara River read by Kay Ryan.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

The Niagara River read by Kay Ryan.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[anna]

Hi Eric,

Good review.

Thanks for sharing.

Anna
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[[星子安娜]]

Hi Eric,

Good review.

Thanks for sharing.

Anna
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[温暖的水獸]

[[温暖的水獸]]

[Lake]

Good poem, good review.

The poem is short, and usually a short form is strong. It has its internal rhythm which I can feel. It also has a strong finish.

..., we do
know this is the
Niagara River, but
it is hard to remember
what that means.

Thanks for introducing Kay Ryan .

[[Lake]]

Good poem, good review.

The poem is short, and usually a short form is strong. It has its internal rhythm which I can feel. It also has a strong finish.

..., we do
know this is the
Niagara River, but
it is hard to remember
what that means.

Thanks for introducing Kay Ryan .

[ericcoliu]

Thank you all for your comments.

[[ericcoliu]]

Thank you all for your comments.

[robarts]

[[robarts]]

[ericcoliu]

[[ericcoliu]]