REVIEWS
Revolution 1989
"One of the
music groups that
inadvertently caused the fall
of the Communists
was named
The Society for
a Merrier Present."

Tooth and Claw
"I figure if I want
to get more details about
the hacking and sawing and
blistering and cutting away
of human tissue,
I could always go back
to medical school."

Spooner
"In one case,
he puts the newly wetted boots
into the refrigerator
after he had
(as Chaucer would say)
bepissed himself."

The Pink Lady
"Then there was
the final blow to her campaign:
an anonymous brochure
issued by the non-existent
Communist League of Negro Women."

Your Face Tomorrow
"We need laws
to be violated and broken.
What would be the point of
having laws if everyone
obeyed them?
We'd never get anywhere.
We couldn't exist.
The State needs infractions,
even children know that,
although they don't know
that they know."

Jeff in Venice,
Death in Varanasi
"Jeff Atman ends up
talking to monkeys,
watches dogs eating
a dead man, talks to a goat
(who tries to give him
a ride in a boat),
and gets poisoned
by a cow."

The Bird of Dawning
"You are there, sodden,
water-logged, paint-besmirched,
unable to sleep, and the ocean,
which had before been a matter of wind,
becomes, suddenly,
a matter of water."

Great Reviews of the Past
The Genesis of Flight
"Several of the
brothers' balloons anticipated
later animal transports:
the Montfolfiers sent up
a sheep, a duck,
a rooster, and then,
finally, a people.
All, apparently,
lived."

LETTERS
Grisélidis Réal
Bob Poole
Poole's Paradise

MORE LETTERS
Yaks
Dogs and Cancer

EVEN MORE LETTERS
Cryptic Letters of the Month
Smirks
Gambling

YET EVEN MORE LETTERS
Letters We Never Finished Reading
I Am a Princess

ARTICLE
The Exploding Eye
"I think
we should pause here
and give tribute to
those of us geezers who find ourselves
sitting in an uncomfortable chair
in a darkened room as
a doctor prepares to stick
a ten- or fifteen-inch
horse-needle
directly into one of
our orbs."

READINGS
The Meaning of History
"The universe is innocent,
even when it sinks a continent
or explodes a galaxy.
Evil is human,
exclusively human.
But not all is evil in humans.
Evil nests in their awareness,
in their freedom."

Great Readings of the Past
William Faulkner
"He had not
read Freud either,
at least so he said
on one occasion:
I have never read him.
Neither did Shakespeare.
I doubt if Melville did either and
I'm sure Moby Dick didn't."

POETRY
Water Picture
"Fondly
hissing, she kisses herself,
and all the scene is troubled:
water-windows splinter,
tree-limbs tangle, the bridge
folds like a fan."

Great Poems of the Past
The Underneath
"I keep a pet
woman under my bed.
She's small
and feisty, with sharp teeth.
I make her
wear all the clothes I hate;
high heels, garter belts, clingy velour."

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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