Ronnow Poetry

Long As You're Living:
Collected Poems
(pdf)

Whole Wide

World

An Anthology of Poems

2K B.C. 2K A.D.

New & Selected Poems

"An original voice." --W.S. Merwin

"Ronnow puts some meaning back into the term
'experimental'. . .a poet who is both idiosyncratic
and based in the best elements
of a literary tradition." --Lewis Turco

"Often experimental, political, sexual, emotional,
but most of all surprising . . . a man and poet
whose personal convictions and writing passion
are not mutually exclusive."
--Alice Osborn in Pedestal Magazine

"Ronnow’s work finds 'salvation in the details'. . .
New & Selected Poems deepens and grows more
interestingly rich as it progresses, and one is left with
the feeling that Ronnow’s development as both a poet
and a man is ongoing. May this be said of all of us."
--Christy Corp-Minamiji for Blogcritics

"Very rich reading." --Naomi Shihab Nye

"Wild and restless." --Sandra Alcosser

"Alive and moving." --Lanie Shanzyra Rebancos

"I have read its pages taking pleasure in their breadth
of knowledge and their singing both." --Jane Hirshfield

"Has what Frank O'Hara called 'a dry eye' with all its
attendant wit, speed and brain drive." --Roger Mitchell

"It sits at my place at table and I dip into it regularly."
--Tom Disch

"I admire this book very much." --David Ray

"An impressive book . . . especially the long final
section, which opens up in a lot of interesting ways."
--Charles North

"There are so many poems here I 'recognize' and value
for one virtue or another: honesty, simplicity
of statement that coexists with complexity of intent,
and a clear commitment to speak to the reader."
--Rhina P. Espaillat

"I've been enjoying the insights, the lyricism,
the wry humor. My kind of book." --Seido Ray Ronci

"I have read through the volume with enjoyment,
admiration, and occasional bouts of envy."
--Fred Chappell

"What an accomplishment. It's a life in poetry. How do people process their lives without art?"
--Molly Peacock

"Refreshingly candid and readable. Amen."
--Bruce Hunter

Available from Amazon.com

Today's Jazz Recording

Once in a While
Art Blakey; Clifford Brown
A Night At Birdland, Vol. 1, 1954
Listen to More Jazz

Today's Featured Poems

When the King Be Witnessed in the Room

John Betjeman

The Cottage Hospital

Adelaide Crapsey

Triad

Emily Dickinson

I heard a Fly buzz–when I died

Rhina P. Espaillat

Wheelchairs

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Felix Randal

Donald Justice

Cool Dark Ode [from Three Odes, 1]

W.D. Snodgrass

A Flat One

David Wagoner

Curtains

Robert Ronnow

Adnate to the Funicle

Communicating the Bird

"The Burning of the Jews is powerful. It stings,
amuses, threatens to irritate, and finally hurts
and persuades: nobody can accuse [Ronnow]
of being afraid to take risks!"
--Rhina P. Espaillat

"[Ronnow] speaks my mind on a number of issues
as well as writing with distinctive style and structure.
Not many poets these days will even tackle the big
issues. [He] mixes delight and grief beautifully,
as in The Writer Working Hard." --David Ray

"The best lesson I've had in quite a while on how to
maintain the joy in the face of and while recording
the details of . . .our times." --Roger Mitchell

"The poems have lots of surprises, and they are graceful, punchy in places, loving." --Ronald Heifetz

"An artist of great maturity in craft as well as in life,
ranging from personal to cosmic to political to natural
to the ornery, all while maintaining a tough backbone
of nonconformist integrity, lucidity and acceptance
of the endlessly insoluble paradoxes of our lives."
--LP Navon