The Best of It

Today it was announced that one of my favorite poets, Kay Ryan, won the Pulitzer prize for Poetry this year for her book  The Best of It.   I wrote a review a few months ago but never posted it.  Here are my thoughts, but don't take my word for it.

The Best of the Best

Review of Pulitzer Prize winning "The Best of It"  by Kay Ryan

It may be cliche to say, but Kay Ryan’s poetry is perfect for people who do not prefer poetry.  Her verses are both accessible and illusive, thinking for us thoughts that most of us never would have thought without her help.  It is perhaps for this reason that she was given the post of US Poet Laureate in 2008, and her newest collection, The Best of It does not disappoint.  

Somewhat thick for a book of poetry, The Best of It feels like a course in the beauty of the English language and the power of just a few words in the right order.  The subject matter is as broad as it is deep, covering a range of animal and human behavior, in addition to history and geography.  In one stanza from A Certain Meanness of Culture (pg. 64), we read:  “What else can we do, born on deserts occupied haphazardly by borax traders aspiring to a stucco elegance if they’re real lucky?”  I feel as though she is referring to my own neighborhood and at the same time to a place I have never imagined before.  Bitter Pill (pg. 18) is a masterpiece of human understanding, causing us to reassess the meaning of an old idiom in only thirteen short lines.

One aspect of Ryan’s work that elevates it beyond common poetry is her rhyming.  Neither overt nor obtrusive, she rhymes words inside lines when we least expect it, letting the flow of her free verse carry us.  And we cannot help but drift with a smile as we float through what is truly, the best of it.