This video segment from Poetry Everywhere features the poet Kay Ryan reading her poem “Turtle” at the Dodge Poetry Festival. Ryan has said that she develops her poems “the way an oyster does, with an aggravation”—is “Turtle” an example of that? Is the narrator’s description of the plodding animal an appreciation of its patience, or just an exasperated list of the turtle’s shortcomings?

For a biography of the poet Kay Ryan please visit the Poetry Foundation Web site.