Things Shouldn't Be So Hard

I recently read this wonderful poem by Kay Ryan:

Things Shouldn't Be So Hard

A life should leave
deep tracks:
ruts where she
went out and back
to get the mail
or move the hose
around the yard;
where she used to
stand before the sink,
a worn-out place;
beneath her hand
the china knobs
rubbed down to
white pastilles;
the switch she
used to feel for
in the dark
almost erased.
Her things should
keep her marks.
The passage
of a life should show;
it should abrade.
And when life stops,
a certain space—
however small —
should be left scarred
by the grand and
damaging parade.
Things shouldn't
be so hard.
Ryan was our Poet Laureate from 2008 to 2010. This month Ryan's newest collection of poems entitled The Best of It is out in paperback (or Kindle).

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3 thoughts on “Things Shouldn't Be So Hard”

  1. Interesting thought: if our lives follow the same patterns over and over, the very things by which we mark, manage and maneuver through our lives are worn away through use. In fact, we erase our lives over time. Truly bittersweet.

  2. why is it so hard...
    could it be tunnel vision,with a little traditional myopia.
    can't help it rich

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