Connolly Ryan on Poetry, Nature, and Friendship: A Conversation on Velocity at Rest

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This past May, Honors faculty member Connolly Ryan released his first book of poems, Velocity at Rest. This collection of 99 poems “leaves the reader amazed, laughing, stunned and whirled about with their incessant and jocular wordplay,” according to Paul Mariana, emeritus UMass faculty member. I had the opportunity to ask Ryan a few questions about his work. Read below to hear from the author himself!

What inspired the themes in Velocity at Rest? 

A deep and healing friendship with my friend Miranda Bushey, an intense and ever-evolving love and veneration for the majesty and sanctity of the natural world, and an immense sense of gentleness, trust, patience, and vigilant protectiveness that my emulation of Mother Nature and all of wildlife has instilled in me, just about covers it.

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What do you hope readers will take away from this set of poetry?

A few people have let me know that poetry is a great source of enduring comfort and calming recognition to them and I hope that others will draw similar courage and intimate solidarity from my work.

Has your experience as a professor influenced the content or style of your poetry? If so, in what ways? 

I consider it a profound privilege to teach and learn from a fresh batch of intellectually curious scholars each semester. At their best, classes become sanctuaries in which an interdisciplinary cross-pollination of perspectives and temperaments ensues, and that dynamic finds a way to seep into my own reflections in sometimes subtle and sometimes distinct ways. 

Are there any poets or writers who have influenced you and your work?

Let’s see: Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, E.E. Cummings, Annie Dillard, Cormac McCarthy, Toni Morrison, Ted Hughes, and Dylan Thomas, to name a formidable few.

Could you speak to the process of choosing these 99 poems and the assembly of Velocity at Rest?

Sure, my oldest friend in the world, Neil Martinson, who lived five floors above me in the lower Manhattan tiny apartment in which I grew up, has stayed in my life over the years and has advocated on my poetic behalf most vehemently and has played a pivotal role in editing, manicuring, choreography and cultivating the harvest of verse which has become Velocity at Rest. I am indelibly indebted to his decades-long loyalty and commitment to my art.

Do you have a favorite poem from the book?

If I had to pick one which exemplifies the combination of music, craft, holiness, and linguistic cohesiveness to which I often aspire, it would be ‘Forest Psalm':

Some kind of sorcery
of resourcefulness
enforced by the forest
is the source of the chorus
which keeps me on course.

In moss I trust.
In grass is bliss.
In the company of
bees, dirt and trees,
I feel most blessed.

River water swallows sorrow.
Wild flowers follow rapture.
Hummingbirds remind us
of what magic looked like
when brewed in the cauldron of childhood.

The breeze through the swale
is the memories of meadows
and animals talking to our souls
by entering our pores: filling
with stillness our mania for motion.

From every leaf a lover overflows.
Within each bird a concert stirs.
Inside all soil a perfect secret rests.
In the wilderness everything is possible,
and what happens in the forest stays

inside you.

If you are interested in purchasing Velocity at Rest, you can buy it online.