I've been considering the possibility that Kay Ryan, the U.S. Library of Congress's 16h Poet Laureate, and I share the same problem with the muses. Well, it's not just Kay Ryan's problem, or mine of course. Anyone whose creativity has gone a bit fallow might wonder about why the muses have gone mute. In "Her Politeness"Ryan observes
how she
isn't insistent, how
she won't impose, how
nothing's so urgent
it won't wait
Now I don't mean to blame my laziness or general lack of discipline about blogging on the mute muse. But what I like here in Ryan's ever aphoristic verse is the notion of non-attachment tweaking the nose of desire. Of course we want that muse to whip us up, give the command, tell us the answer. We wish for, as Ryan says
the muse
you'd have leap at your throat
you'd spring to obey.
But Miss Museypants just sits there all meek and quiet, smiling politely, waiting for you to figure it out on your own.
