Kay Ryan Poems

Nothing exists as a block
and cannot be parceled up.
So if nothing's ventured
it's not just talk;
...

To the dragon
any loss is total.
...

As though
the river were
...

It is at the edges
that time
thins.
...

Patience is wider
than one once envisioned,
...

The chickens are circling
and blotting out the day.
...

Say when rain
cannot make
you more wet
...

Everything contains some silence.
Noise gets its zest from the small
...

There are charms
that forestall harm.
The house bristles
with opportunities
for stasis: refolding
the linens along
their creases, keeping
the spoons and chairs
in their right places.
Nobody needs to
witness one's exquisite
care with the napkins
for the napkins
to have been the act
that made the fact
unhappen.
...

Miser time grows
profligate near the
end: unpinching
and unplanning,
abandoning the
whole idea of
savings. It's hard
to understand
but time apparently
expands with its
diminishing. The
door thrown wide
on sliding hills of high-
denomination bills and
nothing much to buy.
...