Former U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan once observed that a poem should act like a clown suitcase, one you can open up and never quit emptying. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Poems are like a Clown Suitcase”
I was reading an interview in the Paris Review recently with the 16th Poet Laureate of the United States, Kay Ryan, and she was talking about how she feels that a poem should act like an empty suitcase.
And she puts it this way, it’s a clown suitcase.
The clown flips open the suitcase and pulls out a ton of stuff.
A poem is an empty suitcase that you can never quit emptying.
Oh, that’s beautiful.
Isn’t that a great image?
That’s nice, yeah.
A clown suitcase, though.
That’s important that it belong to a clown.
Right.
Couldn’t be something serious, right?
That sounds like some of her poetry.
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