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Salvage

By Kay Ryan b. 1945 Kay Ryan

The wreck

is a fact.

The worst

has happened.

The salvage trucks

back in and

the salvage men

begin to sort

and stack,

whistling as

they work.

Thanks be

to god—again—

for extractable elements

which are not

carriers of pain,

for this periodic

table at which

the self-taught

salvagers disassemble

the unthinkable

to the unthought.

Source: Poetry (April 2005).

Biography

Born in California in 1945 and acknowledged as one of the most original voices in the contemporary landscape, Kay Ryan is the author of several books of poetry, including Flamingo Watching (2006), The Niagara River (2005), and Say Uncle (2000). Her book The Best of It: New and Selected Poems (2010) won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Ryan's tightly compressed, rhythmically dense poetry is often compared to that of Emily . . .

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