Flamingo Watching - Softcover

Kay Ryan has published 6 books of poems and is the winner of the Ruth Lilly poetry prize.

These poems are marked with the powerful but idiosyncratic influence of Marianne Moore, whose unique style is echoed in Ryan's elliptically compressed syntax and high-toned ironic stance ("There is such a thing as/too much tolerance/for unpleasant situations,/a time when the gentle/teasing out of threads/ceases to be pleasing/to a woman born for conquest." But unlike Moore, who knew how to modulate her astringency, Ryan's cramped syllabics have a monotonous density that too often mistakes sound for sense: "Green was the first color/to get out of the water,/leaving the later blue/and preceding yellow/which had to follow/because of fall." Occasionally, there is a clever charm in her descriptions. A garden snake is "born sans puff or rattle/he counts on persiflage/in battle"). Overall, however, these poems are derivative and lacking in substance. Not recommended.
Christine Stenstrom, Shea & Gould Law Lib., New York
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