books (cover photos) (links to amazon.com or bn.com Ð preferably bn -- for books in print)
House and Home, forthcoming, Marsh Hawk Press, 2004
Zodiac Arrest:
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 1564390470
Publisher: Ridgeway Press
Pub. Date: October 1995
Someday Songs: Poems Toward A Personal History
Format: Hardcover, 64pp.
ISBN: 093353289X
Publisher: BkMk Press of the University of Missouri-Kansas City
Pub. Date: April 1992
"Painful and witty at the same time, the poems are simple in structure and give the reader a warm feeling for family, changing tradition, friendship, and an understanding of the pain of alienation and loss." Library Journal
"The poems, which evoke Jewish ritual and communal life, are remarkable for their simplicity, clarity and depth of feeling. They are not so much ``about'' religious experience as they are moments of it." Publishers Weekly
sample poems?
Practicing To Be A Woman: New & Selected Poems
Format: Hardcover, 152pp.
ISBN: 0810815109
Publisher: Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Pub. Date: May 1982
also available from backinprint.com [link?]
"The book is broken into sections which effectively chart the poet's artistic and emotional development and, as the title suggests, the path to self-assurance and acceptance is far from clearly marked. The majority of the poems in Practicing are visionary to the extent of being etherial – but instead of the usual progression from the abstract to the concrete that one observes as many poets develop their craft, Ratner uses her ever-increasing skill and artistic poise to push her poetry ever-farther into territories that shimmer above the dross of the real world like so many Shangrilas." – Warren Woessner, Abraxas
Sample poems:
Hide & Seek
Format: paperback, with photos, 52pp.
Publisher: Ommation Press
Pub. Date: 1979
o.o.p. (and scarce)
All the poems from this book appear in a detailed poem/photo project at the Light and Dust Anthology of Poetry Site: http://www.thing.net/~grist/l&d/lrr-03.htm
SEA AIR IN A GRAVE GROUND HOG TURNS TOWARD
"These poems together form a portrait of Atlantic City and, by careful implication, of the poet who grew up there... They are successful in creating a sense of place – a collage of sea, "sights," memoories, and gradual decay." – Library Journal
selections from this volume can be found at NJPOETS.com: http://users.tellurian.com/swaa/ratner.html
COMBING THE WAVES
Format: Paperback, 92pp.
ISBN: 0914610163
Publisher: Hanging Loose Press
Pub. Date: January 1979
"The language in Combing the Waves is not poetic in the usual sense, but it is startling because of its conversational tone. Inside these poems, there is a sense of isolation and secrecy combined with a need to reach beyond these barriers to touch... this collection is witty, sharp and very clever. At the same time, a voice of incredible clarity breaks through the cunning of the poet to speak some very simple truths. I found it astonishing." – Joy Parks, Motheroot
Sample Poems: Love Song
Definition, After a Folksong
Swansong
Pretexts (link to l&d)
QUARRY:
Format: Paperback, 117pp.
ISBN: 0912284986
Publisher: New Rivers
Pub. Date: January 1978
o.o.p. search used bookshops or email author for more information
"Ratner's Quarry comes with calm moodesty. Extracting hunnting scenes from old tapestries, she alternates between the voice of the hunter chronicling his feelings and the descriptive voice of the poet laying down the legends of the hunt. We sence the magic., "for a time/ we are all led away." – Library Journal
THE TIGHTROPE WALKER
Fornmat: Paperback, 28 pp.
ISBN: 0889940029
Publisher: Pennyworth Press;
Pub. Date:
o.o.p. search used bookshops or email author for more information
PIRATE'S SONG
o.o.print, full text online at The Contemporary American Poetry Archive: http://capa.conncoll.edu/pirate.htm
"I'm an old fan of Rochelle Ratner. Her skill with lines amazes me. Her economy with words (good words!) sustains the tension in her lines, first to last. The poems in Pirate's Song are intellectually stimulating and though difficult at first, worth the time and effort to hang on... Ratner knows the poetic idiom as few others do." --- Simon Perchik, The Smith
"I find Rochelle Ratner's voice, in its clearest moments, a fresh and melodious one – calm, observant and at times detached, yet strongly compassionate and without bitterness or self-pity. She is keenly conscious of the subtle balance between grown and stasis, hesitation and intimacy, the world as individual perception and as concrete fact." --- Ann Morganson, Writers' Resources
THE MYSTERIES
o.o.print, full text online at The Contemporary American Poetry Archive: http://capa.conncoll.edu/mysterie.htm
FALSE TREES
Format: Hardcover & paperback, 95 pps
ISBN: 0912284374
Publisher: New Rivers Press
Pub. Date: January 1973
o.o.p. copies available from backinprint.com http://store.backinprint.com/sku941150_0323.html
or email author for more information
"In most of her work Ms. Ratner's images are unique, highly charged pictures of her emotional life conveyed through a medium of paradoxical, often lyric language that conveys the timbre of her original experience." Stuart Milstein, Poets Fortnightly
A Birthday of Waters:
Format: Hardcover & paperback; 85 pps
ISBN: 0912284234
Publisher: New Rivers Press
Pub. Date: December 1971
o.o.p. search used bookshops or email author for more information
"These poems possess the unquestionable authority of deep emotion carefully explored... Their cumulative effect lingers, a dark presence in the mind, long after their precise contents have been forgotten." Stephen Donadio, Commentary
TRANSLATIONS
Paul Colinet: Selected Prose Poems (photo)
"Those expecting oddity will not be disappointed, but neither will those readers looking for something more... Although the French originals are not included in the text, the translations all read smoothly – nowhere is there any sense of awkward groping after vocabulary... There is gentle fantasy and evidence of careful thought and craftsmanship on these pages – not merely strangeness for strangeness sake." Lane Jennings, Small Press Review
o.o.print, full text online at The Contemporary American Poetry Archive
http://capa.conncoll.edu/colinet.htm
links to poems on net
The Cortland Review, Issue 16:
http://www.cortlandreview.com/issue/16/ratner16.html
The Cortland Review, Issue 12:
http://www.cortlandreview.com/issue/12/ratner12.htm
Wise Women's Web:
http://users.tellurian.com/wisewomensweb/ratner.html
Realpoetik
http://www.scn.org/arts/realpoetik/ratner.rochelle10-20-98.htm and
http://www.scn.org/realpoetik/ratner97.html
PARES CUM PARIBUS No. 4
http://rehue.csociales.uchile.cl/rehuehome/facultad/publicaciones/Pares/pares4/poesia28.htm
The Poetry Exchange:
http://www.w3px.com/~feature/pxfp84.htm
Ploughshares:
http://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmArticleID=1250
Switched-on Gutenberg
http://faculty.washington.edu/jnh/vol5no2/v5i2p31.htm
|
