Say Uncle

by Kay Ryan

Book Overview

Filled with wry logic and a magical, unpredictable musicality, Kay Ryan's poems continue to generate excitement with their frequent appearances in The New Yorker and other leading periodicals. Say Uncle, Ryan's fifth collection, is filled with the same hidden connections, the same slyness and almost gleeful detachment that has delighted readers of her earlier books. Compact, searching, and oddly beautiful, these poems, in the words of Dana Gioia, "take the shape of an idea clarifying itself." "A poetry collection that marries wit and wisdom more brilliantly than any I know.... Poetry as statement and aphorism is rarely heartbreaking, but reading these poems I find myself continually ambushed by a fundamental sorrow, one that hides behind a surface that interweaves sound and sense in immaculately interesting ways." -- Jane Hirshfield, Common Boundary; "The first thing you notice about her poems is an elbow-to-the-ribs playfulness." -- Patricia Holt, San Francisco Chronicle.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802137172
• ISBN13: 9780802137173
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Poet of the Elements

Kay Ryan always speaks in a clear voice. With the acuity that I recall from a young soul gazing through creekwater at all the life that flows and hides under rocks.

Outstanding collection...

This was the first book of Kay Ryan's poetry I ever read, and I couldn't put it down... and even once finished, I'm still picking it up to read over and soak up again.

"uncle!"

lyrics of moral turpitude and musical agility (the brief lines of Kay Ryan maintain their integrity), and therein lies their beauty.

Exquisite

Transparent, yet fathomless as a crystal ball, these poems continue to speak after countless readings, not yet yielding up their secrets. Incredibly rich, they go down oh-so-easy, a verbal tiramisu. Small, yet amazingly dense, like gold nuggets. Impeccable logic, impeccable use of language. Gorgeous, and mysterious. Moving and inspiring. Kay Ryan delivers on William Carlos Williams' famous lines: It is difficult/to get the news from poems/yet men die every day/for lack/of what is found there.

what seems like a string of words can carry much weight

These poems insist on their verticality as they run down the page. Their weight and glow however resides in little unexpected turns in meaning that place us squarrely in the thouroughly ambiguous world we live in. We are told that wasted time and other common negative experiences need to be accepted as maybe something like a musical pause, as crucial as the rest of the notes to the sound of the music. Reading these poems I can feel a connection with the anecdotes of Porchia or Francis Ponge's underrated work. Ryan's voice is totaly unique but I can't help recalling also Elisabeth Bishop and that marvelous poem about the little marvel stove, so full of forgiveness and yet cooly tight as a work of art.