Ruth Ellen Kocher

Nov 30, 2023 | poetryfoundation.org | Ruth Ellen Kocher |Rebecca Frank

By Ruth Ellen Kocher “i begin with ocean / floating in the free space of my ribs / somewhere between / ursa major and ursa minor.” So opens Ruth Ellen Kocher’s gripping eighth collection, godhouse, which examines the forces that shape the life of a Black woman raised by a white family: “i begin as a side bet / a detour into cosmos / via the elliptical path of my thumbprint.” In the pointedly named “cephalogenesis,” the speaker’s grandmother calls her mother “whore”; in contrast, the speaker...

Mar 9, 2023 | poets.org | Patrick Donnelly |Mary Ruefle |Ruth Ellen Kocher |Dean Young

circle of Giovanni Bellini circa 1505 oil on wood, is whathe fits between his third and fourth weekly pill boxes,to remind himself to reorder. His routine about the anti-virals is of greater magnitude, maybe, than the one in whichMrs. Gardner used to place a vase of violets in frontof the painting, when she owned it. This card’s onlya reproduction of the Passion, not the original. But we’ve seenhow imitation and daily use can make of pity and fearan almost cozy utensil.