American Life in Poetry
Kay Ryan was our nation’s Poet Laureate at The Library of Congress for the 2008-2010 terms. Her poetry is celebrated for its compression; she can get a great deal into a few words. Here’s an example of a poem swift and accurate as a dart.
Pinhole
We say
pinhole.
A pin hole
of light. We
can’t imagine
how bright
more of it
could be,
the way
this much
defeats night.
It almost
isn’t fair,
whoever
poked this,
with such
a small act
to vanquish
blackness.
Poem copyright 2011 by Kay Ryan. Poem reprinted from Poetry, October 2011, by permission of Kay Ryan and the publisher. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation and Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.