NEW TITLES
The Model T
"The car could creep forward,
threatening to run over
the unsuspecting driver
who found himself caught
between his over-eager car
and the wall of garage or shed,
yelling for someone to come
and give the hand lever a yank."

Japanese Women Poets
"Being of this world, unable to be near a deity,
I live apart, aggrieved over you in the morning,
I live away, longing for you, my lord.
If you were jewels, I'd carry you tied round my wrist,
If you were a robe, I'd never take you off.
I long for you, my lord; last night
I saw you in my dreams."

American Creation
"Valley Forge is
a place enshrined in mythology
ever since as a kind of
American Gethsemane,
where Washington,
the American Christ,
kneels in prayer amidst
bloodstained snow
beseeching the Lord
for deliverance."

Notes from Nethers
"There was one character
who had to scream,
once a day.
There was a man who ate
grasshoppers (live).
There was a woman who
seemed on the verge
of tears
at all times."

Wartime Writings of Marguerite Duras
"I felt a cool and
moist contact with my lips.
The revulsion I felt
truly cannot be described.
I shoved Léo, I spat,
I wanted to jump out of the car.
I slid over to the end
of the seat as far as possible.
And there I spat into my handkerchief."

Warm Springs
"It was wonderful,
a place of extensive care
for newly disabled,
people who liked to pretend,
at least for the time they were there,
that they were not disabled."

The Swimming Pool
"She says,
'There's one thing
I forgot to mention.
The Manager is missing
one leg and both arms.'
There was a short silence.
'One leg and both arms,'
he replied at last.
'His left leg, to be precise.'"

Three Musketeers
"He took it with
the terrible calm of the man
who is sure that God is silent.
That He will go on beating him
with no justification and
no reward. That it makes
no sense to suffer before going on
suffering, or to go on suffering
after you have suffered."

Great Reviews of the Past
Yoga Mala
"If you don't get it,
don't sweat it.
Just get a Guru.
'Yoga should never be learned
from reading books or
looking at pictures,'
says the author of
Yoga Mala ---
complete with its
sixty-six photographs."

BRIEF REVIEWS
The House of Widows
The Young Man from Savoy
The Mirror in the Well
The Young Thomas Wolfe

LETTERS
Cancer and Dogs
Writings by Letter-Carriers

MORE LETTERS
Neither/Nor
W. H. Fowler
Photos of the Dalai Lama

EVEN MORE LETTERS
My Bloody Life
Reymundo Sanchez

YET EVEN MORE LETTERS
Cryptic Letters of the Month
Dada
The Banner Joint

ARTICLES
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
(And His Dog)
"He's afraid of Coit's Tower
but he's not afraid of Congressman Doyle
although what he hears is very discouraging
very depressing
very absurd
to a sad young dog like himself
to a serious dog like himself
But he has his own free world to live in
His own fleas to eat
He will not be muzzled
Congressman Doyle is just another fire hydrant
to him."

READINGS
Marching (and Tooting) Off to War
"Feet with no socks,
chafed by the leather
of the heavy boots,
skinned by all the cutting
flints in the mountains;
feet with their heels
nearly wrenched off by
weeks of climbing up,
with their toes squashed flat
by day after day of
painful climbing down."

Curds & Whey
"I climbed up
onto the counter, and
danced in the bread,
kneading it with my toes,
rolling it between my soles.
Arms spread wide,
stomping in a rhythmic circle,
some remnant of chant rose,
close to a memory not mine."

The Kayak Disaster
"The futile attempt
to find dry matches
that had drifted ashore,
the trembling efforts
to light a fire
in the rain
with wet wood,
the slow surrender
to hypothermia
on a dark shore,
the newspaper headlines
about those poor,
foolish women."

POETRY
Late-Winter Species
"A man kept dialing your answering machine
and mumbling about sadnesses
off the coast of New Guinea
until he lost track of his breathing
and turned back into silence."

Era of the Homeless Indoors
"The bed freezing
where she drank vodka
and tiny depression eggs,
Perry Mason mixed with snow
on the television watching us."

I Am Waiting
"I am waiting
to get some intimations
of immortality
by recollecting my early childhood
and I am waiting
for the green mornings to come again
youth's dumb green fields come back again
and I am waiting
for some strains of unpremeditated art
to shake my typewriter"

THE OFFICIAL RALPH
Paradox-of-the-Month

GENERAL INDEX
All the back-issues of RALPH,
including titles of books under review,
along with author, subject, and publisher,
plus links to readings, articles, and poems
that have appeared on-line
since 1994.

A PITHY SAMPLE
of our most notorious reviews
as collected in the hard-copy
"FOLIO"

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