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Attendance
A word before we begin …
I began writing poetry in college. At the encouragement
of another writer, I enrolled in an introductory poetry
creative writing class. My final portfolio was well-received
and gained me entrance into 300- and 400-level workshops,
one taught by a Pulitzer Prize finalist, the other by a
Pulitzer Prize winner. I was a budding graphic designer
moonlighting as a poet, and, surrounded by rooms full of
poets-to-be, I felt like a fraud. I quickly dropped both classes
and stopped writing poetry altogether.
Twenty-five years later, we moved to the Flint Hills outside
Manhattan, Kansas, and I began to hike the trails around
our home. Hiking was not new to me: I had been hiking for
years—in places both famous and less so—but the simple
act of hiking the same expanse of tallgrass prairie fostered
in me a kindredness with the land I had not felt before. I
began not just to see it or feel it but to know it—and it me.
Unexpectedly, poems began springing forth during walks,
and I began to pay attention.
What follows are the poems I wrote that first year, arranged
in the order in which they were written. In the time since,
I have no doubt written better poems, but these were the
ones that brought poetry back into my life—and planted the
prairie deep in my soul.
To those who have read, or have heard me read these poems,
I am grateful for your support and encouragement.
Ryan Kegley
January 2025
I began writing poetry in college. At the encouragement
of another writer, I enrolled in an introductory poetry
creative writing class. My final portfolio was well-received
and gained me entrance into 300- and 400-level workshops,
one taught by a Pulitzer Prize finalist, the other by a
Pulitzer Prize winner. I was a budding graphic designer
moonlighting as a poet, and, surrounded by rooms full of
poets-to-be, I felt like a fraud. I quickly dropped both classes
and stopped writing poetry altogether.
Twenty-five years later, we moved to the Flint Hills outside
Manhattan, Kansas, and I began to hike the trails around
our home. Hiking was not new to me: I had been hiking for
years—in places both famous and less so—but the simple
act of hiking the same expanse of tallgrass prairie fostered
in me a kindredness with the land I had not felt before. I
began not just to see it or feel it but to know it—and it me.
Unexpectedly, poems began springing forth during walks,
and I began to pay attention.
What follows are the poems I wrote that first year, arranged
in the order in which they were written. In the time since,
I have no doubt written better poems, but these were the
ones that brought poetry back into my life—and planted the
prairie deep in my soul.
To those who have read, or have heard me read these poems,
I am grateful for your support and encouragement.
Ryan Kegley
January 2025
40 pages, Paperback
Published April 22, 2025
About the author
Ryan Kegley
2 books3 followersRyan Kegley is a poet living in the Flint Hills of Kansas. His writing is rooted in the belief that paying close attention—to landscapes, relationships, memory, and the natural world—is one way we learn to belong.
His debut collection, In the Bewilderment, explores wonder, ecology, grief, and grace through poems that invite readers to see the familiar with fresh eyes. His work has appeared in the Wellington Daily News, Writing the Land: Wanderings I, The New Territory, Quarry, and elsewhere.
When he’s not writing, Ryan works as a creative director and brand strategist, helping organizations uncover and tell the stories that make them uniquely themselves. He is also an avid reader and reviewer of contemporary poetry and literary nonfiction.
His debut collection, In the Bewilderment, explores wonder, ecology, grief, and grace through poems that invite readers to see the familiar with fresh eyes. His work has appeared in the Wellington Daily News, Writing the Land: Wanderings I, The New Territory, Quarry, and elsewhere.
When he’s not writing, Ryan works as a creative director and brand strategist, helping organizations uncover and tell the stories that make them uniquely themselves. He is also an avid reader and reviewer of contemporary poetry and literary nonfiction.
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