Even on the Greatest Subjects Too Much Can Be Said, and: Only the Beginning of the Sharpness
- Even on the Greatest Subjects Too Much Can Be Said, and: Only the Beginning of the Sharpness
Even on the Greatest Subjects Too Much Can Be Said
— Montaigne
You can oversellthe sea, say, orthe way we missthe dead. The littlestbit of absence excitesoceans. And of oceansthe less said thebetter: the wet beyondthe land: we have abuilt-in hair-triggerprimed to understand. [End Page 76]
Only the Beginning of the Sharpness
“What you think is the point is not the point at all but only the beginning of the sharpness.”
—Flann O’Brien, The Third Policeman
It’s hard forthe mastersharpener afterall that workto have the shafttaken for the point.People run themselvesthrough right andleft and don’tknow they do.The point issticking out theirback and they’restill waitingfor it, lookingdown the track. [End Page 77]
Kay Ryan is a former US Poet Laureate. Her poetry collections include Erratic Facts (Grove, 2015) and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Best of It: New and Selected Poems (Grove, 2010). Her many awards include a MacArthur “Genius” grant and the National Humanities Medal. A resident of Marin County, Ryan grew up in the small towns of the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert, California.
