The best of it : new and selected poems / Kay Ryan.

More than 200 poems, selected by the poet.

Includes index.

New poems. Odd blocks -- The edges of time -- Bait goat -- Train-track figure -- We're building the ship as we sail it -- Virga -- Dogleg -- Cloud -- Ledge -- Stations -- Repetition -- The pharaohs -- Pentimenti -- Bitter pill -- Polish and balm -- Retroactive -- Galp̀ago -- Finish -- Shift -- Easter Island -- Cut out for it -- Spiderweb -- Still life with lemons, oranges and a rose -- After Zeno --

Flamingo watching 1994. Flamingo watching -- This life -- Extraordinary lengths -- Every painting by Chagall -- The tables freed -- Leaving spaces -- Periphery -- The mock ruin -- Is it modest? -- The things of the world -- Emptiness -- Slant -- Apology -- Vacation -- A certain kind of Eden -- No rest for the idle -- The narrow path -- When fishing fails -- Say it straight -- Glass slippers -- How successful can she afford to be? -- Repetition -- Les natures profondement bonnes sont toujours indčises -- So different -- Half a loaf -- Soft -- Spring -- I marveled at how generally I was aided -- Impersonal -- A certain meanness of culture -- The test we set ourself -- Force -- Miners' canaries -- The hinge of spring -- Deer -- Sheep in wolves' clothing -- Snake charm -- The palm at the end of the mind -- Poetry is a kind of money -- Persiflage -- Masterworks of Ming -- Breast birds -- Paired things -- Osprey -- Turtle --

Elephant rocks 1996. Living with stripes -- Doubt -- Mirage oases -- Cirque -- Chemistry -- That vase of lilacs -- Connections -- Dew -- Lacquer artist -- All shall be restored -- Full measure -- Stars of Bethlehems -- Crib -- Bestiary -- How birds sing -- How a thought thinks -- Intention -- If the moon happened once -- New clothes -- Simply by growing larger -- To the young anglerfish -- Crustacean Island -- Imaginary Eskimos -- Outsider art -- Caught -- Les petites confitures -- Why isn't it all more marked -- Witness -- Learning -- Apogee -- Against gravity -- Lacunae -- Intransigence -- Age -- Counsel -- Insult -- Silence -- A cat/a future -- Hope -- Losses -- The cabinet of curiosities -- Her politeness -- Bad patch -- Swept up whole -- Any morning -- Relief -- Part Midas -- The woman who wrote too much -- Sonnet to spring -- A plain ordinary steel needle can float on pure water -- Distance -- The vessel and the cup -- Wooden -- The second -- Heat -- Poetry in translation -- If she only had one minute -- Elephant rocks --

Say uncle 2000. Say uncle -- Corners -- Star block -- Mockingbird -- A hundred bolts of satin -- The excluded animals -- Blandeur -- Composition -- Patience -- Coming and going -- Nothing ventured -- That will to divest -- Winter fear -- Grazing horses -- Waste -- Forgetting -- The fourth wise man -- Beasts -- Gaps -- The fabric of life -- Help -- The pass -- The pieces that fall to earth -- Don't look back -- It's always darkest just before the dawn -- Blunt -- Diamonds -- Herring -- The silence islands -- Cheshire -- Yeses -- Great thoughts -- Test -- Crown -- Bad day -- Among English verbs -- Lime light -- Why we must struggle -- Drops in the bucket -- The job -- Dutch -- Chemise -- Deferred silence -- Attention -- Failure -- Matrigupta -- Weakness and doubt -- Failure 2 -- Two more, and up goes the donkey -- Water under the bridge -- Your face will stick -- And all becomes as before --

The Niagara River 2005. The Niagara River -- Home to roost -- Carrying a ladder -- Sharks' teeth -- Weak forces -- The elephant in the room -- A ball rolls on a point -- The best of it -- Chinese foot chart -- Shipwreck -- The other shoe -- Atlas -- He lit a fire with icicles -- Rats' tails -- Added significance -- Chop -- Felix crow -- Desert reservoirs -- Hailstorm -- Expectations -- Green hills -- Rubbing lamps -- Tenderness and rot -- Tar babies -- Tired blood -- Theft -- Ideal audience -- Caps -- Thin -- Stardust -- Blue China doorknob -- Salvage -- The light of interiors -- Things shouldn't be so hard -- The past -- Reverse drama -- Fake spots -- Legerdemain -- Hide and seek -- Post-construction -- Least action -- Chart -- No names -- The material -- The well or the cup -- Late justice -- Backward miracle -- Green behind the ears -- Thieves -- Lighthouse keeping -- Tune.

Kay Ryan is the sixteenth Poet Laureate of the United States. Here is the poet's own selection of more than two hundred poems, offering both longtime followers and new readers a stunning retrospective of her earlier work as well as a generous selection of powerful new poems.