U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan never wanted to be a poet.

“I didn’t want to be something I’d be ashamed to tell my grandfather about," Ryan says of a vocation that culls images of men in puffy shirts writing by candlelight in a French garrett.

Perhaps that’s why she writes so economically, as if every word was a reluctant concession to her calling; each syllable measured in dollhouse spoons of wit, intelligence and observation; every rhyme tucked slyly into unexpected places.

For the rest of the original story and the Q&A with Ryan, go to the Colorado Springs Arts Blog.

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U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Cornerstone Arts Center, Colorado College, 825 N. Cascade Ave.

Admission: Free; 389-6607, coloradocollege.edu