Ohio River Sutra

by | Feb 29, 2016 | Jack Ramey, Poetry

[Poem] Something white floats on the water Close to the opposite shore: White like floating paint or a ghost Made flesh, hanging there, unmoved by the current. A white plastic bag hangs high in a tree, A vacant soul blown by a swirling wind: Breathing in and breathing...

Whose life is this anyway?

by | Feb 28, 2016 | Jack Ramey, Poetry

[Poem] . A white plastic bag hangs high in a tree,A vacant soul blown by a swirling wind:Breathing in and breathing outLike a broken balloon on a naked limb. Whose life is this, anyway?The loudest towboat on the OhioOwned by American Electric Power —(AEP) emblazoned...

Fragments from the Gone World

by | Sep 5, 2015 | Jack Ramey, Poetry

  [Poem] XXI Louis Congo they called me when I was alive, my slave name – Louis for Louisiana, Congo for where I was taken from. Portuguese taught me to read and write but sold me off to the Frenchman who took me to New Orleans when she was young in 1721. Why...

Fragments from the Gone World

by | Aug 29, 2015 | Jack Ramey, Poetry

[Poem] XV Imagine a planet where mammoths and bears outnumber people. A mere ten thousand years ago the human population of Earth was five million bodies and souls. You could fit them all into two Toronto Canadas. They were pretty much the same as us except that the...

Fragments from the Gone World

by | Aug 22, 2015 | Jack Ramey, Poetry

    [Poem] XII Dionysus was a god who could take a joke. In one of his plays Aristophanes gave him diarrhea in Hell and the wine god did not strike him dead on the spot for blasphemy. But, it is said, Aristophanes later died of drink.   XIII The Romans...

Fragments from the Gone World

by | Aug 15, 2015 | Art, Jack Ramey, plato, Poetry

[Poem] I The gods are far too literal minded : Ithmonike of Pellene pregnant for three entire years after imploring the god Asklepios at Epidaurus. You silly woman, he said upon her return, why did you not say you wanted to give birth?   II Fingernail-clipping...