Kay Ryan read at the Free Library on Thursday night. She came out on stage in a blue blazer and khaki pants, compact as a poem. I haven’t been to a poetry reading in a long time though I used to go to quite a few. The woman who introduced Kay Ryan said she exploded the meaning of brief. How apt! Kay Ryan read and talked; she was convivial. And the crowd was pliant and happy. I was too. I was too.
She’s said before that she does not believe in readings where the crowd is subtle and sensitive; she said that part of her is a ham and poetry readings are a place for both halves, ham and poet, to be happy together. That kind of harmony, her comfort, was clear. Each poem was put forward, in small form, every edge exact enough to tease fantastic from familiar. The poems were beautiful. And the reading was just what I’ve wanted poetry readings to always be – unpretentious performance. I didn’t want it to end. Among the poems she read was one I remember from a long time ago.
A Plain Ordinary Steel Needle Can Float on Pure Water
Who hasn’t seen
a plain ordinary
steel needle float serene
on water as if lying on a pillow?
The water cuddles up like Jell-O.
It’s a treat to see water
so rubbery, a needle
so peaceful, the point encased
in the tenderest dimple.
It seems so simple
when things or people
have modified each other’s qualities
somewhat
we almost forget the oddity
of that.
During the reading, she mentioned that she knew of two couples had used the poem in their wedding ceremonies – it had turned out to be, she said with a laugh, her “wedding poem.” This was the first poem I ever knew by Kay Ryan. I remember reading it in the New Yorker; set apart from all the other text and I remember the suddenness of feeling. She read the poem and the effect was just the same. It reinforced in me the notion that clarity is key, but creating clarity from suggestion, not sentence, is the truer thing. I was sitting next to my husband. He likes a few poets but he did not know Kay Ryan. He accompanied me. And we both had the great uncomplicated pleasure of enjoying a poetry reading, together.
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