Recently, I had a couple of notes on lines that could be held in memory. I’ve decided to see if I can get some new poems by heart.
It’s a fun thing to do in grade school and a funny — as in sadly humorous — thing to do at 67.
The first poem on my list is Kay Ryan’s poem “Carrying a Ladder.” It captures, in five sentences, a sense of human nature: our baffling ability to do damage to our fellow creatures and our drunken optimism about what’s within our grasp.
I’ve been carrying around this line — given here without the line breaks — in memory:
As though one had a way to climb out of the damage and apology.
Of course we don’t have a way. Wanting a way, pretending we have a way, is what makes human beings.
The poem strikes me is as scripture. It’s time to see if I can get it the whole thing into my head and heart.
• Sources: Kay Ryan, The Niagara River; New York: Grove Press, 2005, p. 3. You can find the poem at The Poetry Foundation’s site:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/42132/carrying-a-ladder
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