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kay ryan
December 2009 
Carrying a Ladder
Posted on Jul 6th, 2009
by 
Ron
Ron
Kay Ryan is the new poet laureate, reluctantly so. I love her poetry. The way she works with words in short spare sentences leaves me pondering .
Carrying a Ladder
We are always
really carrying
a ladder, but it's
invisible. We
only know
something's
the matter:
something precious
crashes; easy doors
prove impassable.
Or, in the body
there's too much
swing or off-
center gravity.
And, in the mind,
a drunken capacity,
access to out-of-range
apples. As though
one had a way to climb
out of the damage
and apology.
-Kay Ryan
Carrying a Ladder
We are always
really carrying
a ladder, but it's
invisible. We
only know
something's
the matter:
something precious
crashes; easy doors
prove impassable.
Or, in the body
there's too much
swing or off-
center gravity.
And, in the mind,
a drunken capacity,
access to out-of-range
apples. As though
one had a way to climb
out of the damage
and apology.
-Kay Ryan
Access: Public
