Vertigo

Poems by Martha Ronk

September 1, 2007 • 6 x 9 • 86 pages • 978-1-56689-205-6

A melancholy, visionary meditation on the mysteries and uncertainties of memory.

Melancholy and playful, analytic and lyrical, Vertigo unlocks the language of the mind’s theater as it immerses the reader in a dense realm of memory and multiple perspectives, repositioning our relations to daily life, the past, and the future.

About the Author

Martha Ronk, who teaches Renaissance literature and creative writing at Occidental College in Los Angeles, is the author of seven books of poetry including In a Landscape of Having to Repeat, winner of the PEN USA Poetry Award. Poems from Vertigo, a National Poetry Series winning collection selected by C.D. Wright, have appeared in American Poetry Review, Boston Review, and elsewhere.

Reviews

 

“Martha Ronk’s Vertigo is as beckoning as it is unsettling.” —C.D. Wright, National Poetry Series judge

“Reading Vertigo, I find much, much more than the continuing project of one of America’s finest poets. Martha Ronk has always been a visionary of astonishing tact and of a subtle, undeniable authority. But in these new poems, she sets herself a shimmering task—nothing less than the rectification of Vision itself. She calls our attentions to Attention.” —Donald Revell

“[Ronk] keeps us poised on the verge between this world and another with poems anchored in generosity and compassion and driven by full emotions that don’t sacrifice intelligence.” —Cole Swensen