“Things Shouldn’t Be So Hard” by Kay Ryan

I’ve been writing this column since August, and yet I’ve never written about a local poet. That changes this week, as I’ve just discovered Kay Ryan, a current resident of Marin County. It’s shocking that I’ve only just come across her, as Ryan served as the United States Poet Laureate from 2008-2010, and was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry (to name just a few of her achievements). Her poem, “Things Shouldn’t Be So Hard,” has a rhythm of its own, and a title with both a literal and a figurative meaning. Figuratively, of course, the poem’s title means that life should not be so difficult, or complicated, but the piece makes the point that objects literally “shouldn’t be so hard”; they should be malleable so that individuals can leave their mark on the world.

Ryan wastes no time in getting her point across. She opens: “A life should leave/deep tracks…” (1-2). Each life should make an impact on the world, rather than merely scratching the surface. She elaborates by explaining that “ruts” (3) should exist “where she/went out and back/to get the mail…” (3-5), that “where she used to/stand before the sink” (8-9) there should be “a worn-out place” (10), and so on. Our environments should reflect the time we spent there, so that we have a way of being remembered when we are gone. It is not a bad thing if “the switch she/used to feel for/in the dark” (15-17) is “almost erased” (18); it’s in fact better if our possessions show some wear and tear, to prove that we made use of them, and therefore, to prove that we lived.

After these examples, Ryan’s poem becomes more direct:

Her things should

keep her marks.

The passage

of a life should show;

it should abrade. (19-23)

A life should never pass unnoticed; it should be recognized even after it has ended, because all people deserve to be commemorated. Every life is important, and our surroundings should echo this concept. As the poem comes to a close, Ryan remarks that “when life stops” (24), some place, “however small” (25), should bear a mark of that life. It “should be left scarred/by the grand and/damaging parade” (26-28). The “parade” is a metaphor for death, and because death is such a major event, it should leave nothing less than a “scar[]” in its wake. Ryan concludes with the poem’s title: “Things shouldn’t/be so hard” (29-30).

Overall, the poem really emphasizes the significance of life. It asks the world around us to leave everything worn, rather than replace our memories with shiny new objects. It also calls on individuals to consciously make their mark on the world, instead of trying to keep everything perfectly neat. Items in mint condition leave no trace of their previous owner, and with regards to a life that has ended, this simply should not be. Life is about making the most of what is around us. “Ruts” and “tracks” are to be cherished, not bemoaned.

• Read an interview with Kay Ryan on her post as Poet Laureate
• Read my post on a previous Pulitzer Prize winner