Celeste LeCompte

My friend Aneesa has a lovely review of the poet Kay Ryan’s work published over at Fanzine today. I’m a poetry fan, myself, but I’d never heard of Kay Ryan before. Aneesa’s review made me want to go out and purchase her books, though, so I wanted to share it. I’ve included my favorite of the excerpted poems after the jump.

Things Shouldn’t Be So Hard

A life should leave
deep tracks:
ruts where she
went out and back
to get the mail
or move the hose
around the yard;
where she used to
stand before the sink,
a worn-out place;
beneath her hand
the china knobs
rubbed down to
white pastilles;
the switch she
used to feel for
in the dark
almost erased.
Her things should
keep her marks.
The passage
of a life should show;
it should abrade.
And when life stops,
a certain space—
however small—
should be left scarred
by the grand and
damaging parade.
Things shouldn’t
be so hard.

– Kay Ryan