Do you know who the US Poet Laureate is?

Most people these days do not care about poetry, so it is not surprising that a good many people don't know who Kay Ryan is. She is the current US. Poet Laureate. Like many poets, Ryan has a knack for observing the mundane, the ordinary and inject life into it. Is that not what makes a great poet? Robert Frost is the poet most people in the US know about. Billy Collins is another former poet laureate who might elicit a nod of recognition from people. Kay Ryan is worth getting to know.Check out two of her poems below.

BLANDEUR

If it please God,
let less happen.
Even out Earth's
rondure, flatten
Eiger, blanden
the Grand Canyon.
Make valleys
slightly higher,
widen fissures
to arable land,
remand your
terrible glaciers
and silence
their calving,
halving or doubling
all geographical features
toward the mean.
Unlean against our hearts.
Withdraw your grandeur
from these parts.

THE NIAGARA RIVER

As though
the river were
a floor, we position
our table and chairs
upon it, eat, and
have conversation.
As it moves along,
we notice — as
calmly as though
dining room paintings
were being replaced —
the changing scenes
along the shore. We
do know, we do
know this is the
Niagara River, but
it is hard to remember
what that means.