Ronnow Poetry

Long As You're Living:
Collected Poems
(pdf)

Whole Wide

World

An Anthology of Poems

2K B.C. 2K A.D.

New & Selected Poems

"An original voice." --W.S. Merwin

"Ronnow puts some meaning back into the term
'experimental'. . .a poet who is both idiosyncratic
and based in the best elements
of a literary tradition." --Lewis Turco

"Often experimental, political, sexual, emotional,
but most of all surprising . . . a man and poet
whose personal convictions and writing passion
are not mutually exclusive."
--Alice Osborn in Pedestal Magazine

"Ronnow’s work finds 'salvation in the details'. . .
New & Selected Poems deepens and grows more
interestingly rich as it progresses, and one is left
with the feeling that Ronnow’s development
as both a poet and a man is ongoing.
May this be said of all of us."
--Christy Corp-Minamiji for Blogcritics

"Very rich reading." --Naomi Shihab Nye

"Wild and restless." --Sandra Alcosser

"Alive and moving." --Lanie Shanzyra Rebancos

"I have read its pages taking pleasure in their
breadth of knowledge and their singing both."
--Jane Hirshfield

"Has what Frank O'Hara called 'a dry eye' with all
its attendant wit, speed and brain drive."
--Roger Mitchell

"It sits at my place at table and I dip into it
regularly." --Tom Disch

"I admire this book very much." --David Ray

"An impressive book . . . especially the long final
section, which opens up in a lot of interesting
ways." --Charles North

"There are so many poems here I 'recognize'
and value for one virtue or another:
honesty, simplicity of statement
that coexists with complexity of intent,
and a clear commitment to speak to the reader."
--Rhina P. Espaillat

"I've been enjoying the insights, the lyricism,
the wry humor. My kind of book."
--Seido Ray Ronci

"I have read through the volume with enjoyment,
admiration, and occasional bouts of envy."
--Fred Chappell

"What an accomplishment. It's a life in poetry. How do people process their lives without art?"
--Molly Peacock

"Refreshingly candid and readable. Amen."
--Bruce Hunter

Available from Amazon.com

"A Republic —
If You Can Keep It"

Letters from an American
Notes on Economics
The Existentialist Republic
Glass Empires
The Hartmann Report
Closer to the Edge

Richard Beeman:
Democracy Requires Constant
Attention from All Citizens (pdf)

David Cole:
Civil Society and Resistance
Are the Ultimate Check
on Autocratic Abuse (pdf)

Alan Charles Raul:
Only Congress Can Authorize
or Discontinue
Agencies and Programs (pdf)

Steven Levitsky & Lucan Way:
The Path to American Authoritarianism (pdf)

Francesca Paris & Charlie Savage:
Unconstitutional and Illegal
Executive Orders (pdf)

Rahm Emanuel:
A Loser's Bet –
Spheres of Influence
and Might Makes Right (pdf)

Andrew Coyne/Malcolm Turnbull:
We Are In Trouble.
Don't Give In, Stand Up To
the Outlaw in the White House (pdf)

Ezra Klein & Yuval Levin:
Congress Is Failing in its Role
as the Primary Branch
of Government (pdf)

Thomas B. Edsall:
This Is the Real Thing –
A Dictatorship.
Expect the Worst. (pdf)

Percy Wells Bidwell/
Timothy W. Ryback:
Did Tariff Wars Cause the
Great Depression & WWII? (pdf)

Perry Bacon, Jr.:
Profiles in Courage –
Elected Officials Leading the Fight
Against Authoritarianism (pdf)

M. Gessen/Philip Bump:
Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.
America's Secret Police
Have Arrived. (pdf)

Angus King:
Presidential Power
Is Now a 5-Alarm Fire (pdf)

Anne Applebaum:
America's MAGA Future
Looks Like Hungary –
Corrupt, Stagnant & Poor (pdf)

Stephen M. Walt:
How to Ruin a Country –
The Destruction of
U.S. Foreign Policy:
Trump's Top 10 Blunders (pdf)

Chris Murphy:
The Tariffs Are Not Economic Policy. They Are a Tool
to Take Over Our Democracy. (pdf)

Kurt M. Campbell & Rush Doshi:
"America First" Will Not Work
Against China –
America Needs Its Allies
More Than Ever (pdf)

Ross Douthat/Anne Applebaum:
The Authors of the Constitution
Separated Powers
For a Reason (pdf)

Timothy Snyder:
State Terror –
Trump Is Using the Same Tactics
as Hitler & Stalin (pdf)

Rex Huppke:
Do You Care Yet?
America Is Being Ruled By a King
Who Answers to No One (pdf)

Ezra Klein:
The Emergency Is Here,
It's Happening Now –
Like It Or Not (pdf)

David Brooks:
It's Time For a Civic Uprising –
Power Must Be Challenged
By Power (pdf)

Roge Karma:
Like a Virus MAGA Is Attacking
America's Strengths – Allies,
Immigrants & Universities (pdf)

Timothy Snyder:
Tyranny Exploits Terror –
Expect Trump to Use
Hitler's Playbook (pdf)

Chris Murphy:
This Is the Most Corrupt
White House in U.S. History
(And No One Seems to Care) (pdf)

Bay Fang:
Shutting Down Radio Free Asia,
Voice of America & Radio Liberty
Is a Gift to Dictators World-Wide (pdf)

L. Rafael Reif:
Trump's Culture War on
Universities and the Coming
American Brain Drain (pdf)

Levitsky/Way/Ziblatt:
How Will We Know When
We Have Lost Our Democracy? (pdf)

Steven Pinker:
Trump's War Against Harvard
Is a Tragic Blunder and a Crime
Against Future Generations (pdf)

Robert Reich/Thom Hartmann:
Supply Creates Demand –
ICE Will Add 10,000 Agents to
the 20,000 Already on the Streets (pdf)

Brandon del Pozo:
ICE Agents Should Be
Prohibited From Wearing Masks
& Required to Identify Themselves
(pdf)

Emily Kilcrease & Geoffrey Gertz:
Tell Me How
This Trade War Ends (pdf)

Peggy Noonan:
Stop the ICE
Workplace Raids: Americans
Admire Immigrants Who Work (pdf)

Thom Hartmann:
Republicans Drive the Economy
Into a Ditch. Democrats
Tow It Out. (pdf)

Thom Hartmann:
Trump Is Trying to
Militarize Our Cities,
Crush Protest & End Elections (pdf)

Scherer/Armitage:
Stopping Fascism & Corruption–
Lawsuits, Lawsuits
& More Lawsuits—But Trump
Is Defying Court Orders (pdf)

Christopher Armitage:
Blue States Are Uniting
To Fight Federal Fascism –
& There's Much More
That Can Be Done (pdf)

Armitage/Kasparov:
We Are On the Path To Having
Our Elections Canceled (pdf)

Jonathan V. Last:
The Federal Government
Has Declared War
on American Citzens,
Calling Us "The Enemy Within" (pdf)

Joyce Vance/Primo Levi:
Are We the Nazis Now?
People are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. (pdf)

Peggy Noonan/Closer to the Edge:
When Trump "Jokes"
He May Want a 3rd Term
Are You Still Laughing? (pdf)

Christopher Armitage:
5 Phone Calls
Can Stop American Fascism—
Here Are the Numbers (pdf)

William Birdthistle:
Trump Is Pushing Us Toward
a 1929-Type Crash (pdf)

Thom Hartmann:
Epstein, Putin, Trump
& the Betrayal of Ukraine (pdf)

Armitage/Noceda
Was the 2024 Election Stolen?
Will 2026 Also Be Stolen? (pdf)

Lawrence/Armitage
Stop Federal Fascism—
States Can Arrest, Prosecute
& Convict ICE Agents (pdf)

Closer to the Edge:
THIS IS NOT A PROTEST STORY.
THIS IS A CIVIC DEFENSE MANUAL. (pdf)

Today's Jazz Recording

Senor Blues
Horace Silver
Live at Newport '58, 1958
Listen to More Jazz

Today's Featured Poems

Free From Love

Jorge Luis Borges

Anticipation of Love [trans. Robert Fitzgerald]

Rosellen Brown

They need a sign: No mothers in the
body shop! [from Cora Fry's Pillow Book]

Chiyo

After a long winter, giving [trans. David Ray]

Albert Goldbarth

Thermodynamics/Sumer

Robert Henryson

Robin and Makyn

Galway Kinnell

Rapture

William Carlos Williams

Asphodel, That Greeny Flower [Book I]

William Butler Yeats

Among School Children

Robert Ronnow

Chambermaid with Ravens

Communicating the Bird

"The Burning of the Jews is powerful. It stings,
amuses, threatens to irritate, and finally hurts
and persuades: nobody can accuse [Ronnow]
of being afraid to take risks!"
--Rhina P. Espaillat

"[Ronnow] speaks my mind on a number of issues
as well as writing with distinctive style and structure.
Not many poets these days will even tackle the big
issues. [He] mixes delight and grief beautifully,
as in The Writer Working Hard." --David Ray

"The best lesson I've had in quite a while on how to
maintain the joy in the face of and while recording
the details of . . .our times." --Roger Mitchell

"The poems have lots of surprises, and they are graceful,
punchy in places, loving." --Ronald Heifetz

"An artist of great maturity in craft as well as in life,
ranging from personal to cosmic to political to natural
to the ornery, all while maintaining a tough backbone
of nonconformist integrity, lucidity and acceptance
of the endlessly insoluble paradoxes of our lives."
--LP Navon

Run for Something

Run for Something recruits and supports young, diverse progressives
to run for down-ballot races
to build sustainable power
in all 50 states.

Brennan Center
for Justice

The Brennan Center
for Justice
works to build an America that is democratic, just, and free.

Indivisible

Indivisible is a grassroots movement of thousands of local groups with a mission to elect progressive leaders
and rebuild our democracy.

Ranked Choice Voting

Fair Vote
Ranked Choice Voting
gives a strong voice to all voters
and ensures that candidates
with the broadest support
get to govern.

Jill Stein & Chase Oliver:
Ranked Choice Voting
Gives Americans More Options
for President and Other Offices (pdf)

Meredith Sumpter:
Party Primaries Need
Ranked Choice Voting (pdf)

David Daley & Deb Otis:
How Voters Can Make the Most
of Ranked Choice Voting (pdf)

Berryann/Friedman/Ritchie:
No More "Spoiler" Candidates
or "Strategic" Voting (pdf)

Walter Olson:
Ranked Choice Voting Helps
Both Conservative
& Progressive Candidates (pdf)

Jeanne Massey:
Ranked Choice Voting
Gives Voters Real Choice,
Real Voice & Real Power (pdf)

Trump Authoritarianism Tracker
Documents the actions, statements, and plans of President Donald Trump and his administration that pose a threat to American democracy. Each action is mapped to one or more of five broad domains of authoritarianism:
--Undermining Democracy & Rule of Law
-- Suppressing Dissent & Controlling Information
--Dismantling Civil Rights & Enabling Corruption
--Attacking Science & Academia
--Destabilizing Foreign Policy & Allies

Immigrant Legal Resource Center
Red Cards / Tarjetas Rojas

All people in the United States, regardless of immigration status, have certain rights and protections under the U.S. Constitution. The ILRC's red cards give examples of how people can exercise these rights:

• DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR if an immigration agent is knocking on the door.

• DO NOT ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS from an immigration agent if they try to talk to you. You have the right to remain silent.

• DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING without first speaking to a lawyer. You have the right to speak with a lawyer.

• If you are outside of your home, ask the agent if you are free to leave and if they say yes, leave calmly.

• GIVE THIS CARD TO THE AGENT. If you are inside of your home, show the card through the window or slide it under the door:

I do not wish to speak with you, answer your questions, or sign or hand you any documents based on my 5th Amendment rights under the United States Constitution.

I do not give you permission to enter my home based on my 4th Amendment rights under the United States Constitution unless you have a warrant to enter, signed by a judge or magistrate with my name on it that you slide under the door.

I do not give you permission to search any of my belongings based on my 4th Amendment rights.

I choose to exercise my constitutional rights.

These cards are available to citizens and noncitizens alike.

WARNING!

• Here’s a warning to the US military:
If you continue to indulge the sick fantasies of Trump, he will drag this country into more and deeper international morasses to feed his need for glory. Do what Admiral Alvin Holsey, an honorable man, did – stand down and refuse an illegal order.

•Here’s a warning to Republicans:
If you continue to allow this man to perpetrate war against his own people with impunity through the actions of ICE, you will be remembered as cowards and hypocrites.

•Here’s a warning to all his other enablers:
If you do not do something to stop this madman, you will go down in history as traitors to this country.

• And here’s a warning to those directly perpetrating Trump's atrocities:
He will not be in power forever, and I expect and hope that you will be held accountable, personally, and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

REALITY

In reality, modern Republican policies have rarely served everyday people, while the policies enacted by Democratic president Joe Biden demonstrably did.

Biden rejected the ideology that called for cutting taxes, regulations, and social services. Instead, he urged Congress to invest in public infrastructure, creating jobs, and he shored up the social safety net.

As Biden prepared to leave office in January 2025, Biden and his administration were leaving behind a country that was in the best shape it had been since at least 2000:

• There were no U.S. troops fighting in foreign wars;

• Murders had plummeted, deaths from drug overdoses had dropped sharply;

• Undocumented immigration was below where it was when Trump left office in 2021;

• Stocks had just had their best two years since the last century;

• The economy was growing, real wages were rising, inflation had fallen to close to its normal range, unemployment was at near-historic lows, and energy production was at historic highs;

• The economy had added more than 700,000 manufacturing jobs among the 16 million total created since 2020.