Indigo [Paperback]

RON KOERTGE (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2009

Traditionally, the ghazal, an ancient Persian form, has a lot of requirements (couplets, rhyme, refrain), but one specific subject—love. Especially illicit and unattainable love. So what are readers to make of Ron Koertge’s ghazals which are about, among other things, the Seven Dwarfs, Technicolor, and Mothra? Well, you probably can’t beat him, so you may as well join him as—with a white hot imagination and irrepressible and unpredictable lyricism—he bends a few rules and breaks the rest. And yet his subject is still love. But not illicit or unattainable, since what he really loves is language. And language loves him back. There it is on every page, lying at his feet, panting.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Pop the cork and savor these sparkling ghazals. Ron Koertge, brash and sassy Californian, makes this ancient form all-American and irresistably new.

—Charles Harper Webb

Ron Koertge is the most consistently entertaining and dazzling poet around.  Guzzle on these ghazals until you are punch-drunk.  These poems will intoxicate you, make you dizzy, make you wish you would have written them!

—Denise Duhamel

Ron Koertge's contemporary ghazels overflow with nimble wit and imagination. Enjoy this generous tribute to an enigmatic and remarkable ancient, poetic form.

—Dorianne Laux

About the Author

Ron Koertge  (pronounced Kur-chee) was born April 22, 1940 in Olney, Illinois to William Henry Koertge (deceased) and Bulis Olive Koertge.  He is married to Bianca Richards. Koertge received his BA from the University of Illinois and his MA from the University of Arizona. He taught English at Pasadena City College from 1965 to 2001. Koertge is the author of many books of poetry including Fever, Sex Object, 12 Photographs of Yellowstone, The Hired Nose, The Father Poems, The Jockey Poems, Men Under Fire, Diary Cows, Life on the Edge of the Continent, High School Dirty Poems, Making Love to Roget's Wife, and Geography of the Forehead. He is also the recipient of an NEA fellowship in Literature (Poetry) and a California Arts Council grant (Poetry). Koertge’s work has been included in Best American Poetry (1999).

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Red Hen Press; 1 edition (November 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597094676
• ISBN-13: 978-1597094672
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,558,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars poetry only for poet, January 12, 2010

By 

Sandra M. Brown (Concord, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Indigo (Paperback)

I am a long time Ron Koertge fan and have many of his poetry collections. He is an astonishing free verse poet. His work is subtle, multi-layered, wry, often flat out funny, and usually contains a major perspective shift on some icon of American pop culture. If you have stumbled across a Koertge poem in a multi-author collection and decide you want more, do NOT buy this book. This is a collection of ghazals. A ghazal is (evidently) an ancient and mysterious Persian form of poetry. Since the structure and purpose of a ghazal are never explained, the startled American reader expecting free verse finds within an incomprehensible collection of two-liners which are barely thematically related, have no narrative velocity, and provide quite a lot of gross imagery. I'm not sure if the lack of titles (there is a table of contents but nothing over each page or what I assume to be each ghazal) is typical of the Persian style, or an affectation. I note that 3 poety types rave about the book on the back cover, which I suppose is a tip off. I cannot tell you how disappointed I am. I return to the Koertge poems more than once throughout each year, but this collection I won't finish unless my research on the ghazal somehow increases my enjoyment. About the only nice feature of this book is that it has the most complete list of Koertge's books of poems that I have found, which will allow me to track a few more down. With titles like Diary Cows I am confident I'll find Koertge free verse within.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wit and language gymnastics, February 7, 2010

By 

Nerd Girl (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Indigo (Paperback)

Here's a respectful disagreement with the previous review. Yes, Mr. Koertge is known for his lucid, accessible, smart and darkly comic poems and young adult books. In INDIGO, his latest, we have the case of a poet venturing outside his "signature style" to create effervescent, heady, leaping associative poems, full of (as Montaigne put it) "jumps and tumblings." Perhaps the ghazal, a flexible form with a fascinating history, (if you are curious, google "ghazal") has enabled Mr. Koertge to access different compositional methods than he has employed in the past. While a turn off for the previous reviewer, Koertge's experimentation in INDIGO is an absolute delight to this long time fan. These playful, high energy poems are full of invention, surprise, and all manner of verbal, imagistic and mental gymnastics! Take a peek and see what you think.