Man Under a Pear Tree

Poetry. "MAN UNDER A PEAR TREE is a litany of fused moments, layered like the transparencies in an encyclopedia to give us--if it's possible--new levels of reality. Keith Ratzlaff shuffles his deck of cards so that images float, fluid and intractable as time itself, and ideas are caught in the process of formation. Ratzlaff gives us context: the portrait widened to landscape in such a way that the individual is not lost, but seen in a new perspective, like the feet of the flying woman whose body must be imagined beyond the frame. Ratzlaff is most assuredly the Klee of words. We are alterable, says this poet, but he is enchanted by the magic of alteration, the illusion that reveals. I hold my breath as Houdini is lowered into the water, slowed breath becoming slower as cause and effect float in an ever-present 'now.' The words that come to mind are brilliant, breathtaking, death-defying, but I'll settle for saying these poems feel as real as talking to yourself"--Judith Kitchen.

Keith Ratzlaff's books of poetry are DUBIOUS ANGELS: POEMS AFTER PAUL KLEE; MAN UNDER A PEAR TREE; and Across the Known World. His awards include the 1996 Anhinga Prize for Poetry, the Theodore Roethke Award, and a Pushcart Prize. He is Professor of English at Central College in Pella, Iowa, where he teaches writing and literature.