Why/Why Not

New California Poetry

by Martha Ronk

Why/Why Not presents a speaker caught in quandaries created by changing perspectives, fervors, and locales. Why do we act one way here and another there; why can't a mind stay made up; why do we hate and love at the same time; why does memory fade or insist; why does the ordinary seem so uncanny? These questions are captured in lines that collide and merge, in irreverent and offhand jibes, and in plaintive repetitions.

Why/Why Not moves across a vivid terrain―the stage of Hamlet, Phillip Marlowe's Los Angeles, Prague, paintings and gardens―to push through a tangle of ways to make sense of the world. Martha Ronk's poetic language is that of the everyday slightly skewed, as if pieces of an ordinary sentence were missing. Ronk's poems use the repetitive and the banal to explore ways in which language is intertwined with thought and experience.

Genres: Poetry

Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

At about the second section of the book Ronk references the character Gertrude from Hamlet. Though I don't think this book should be limited to an extended personae-poem in her voice, Gertrude's posing the question "Why" or "Why not" poses an interesting juxtaposition to Hamlet's "To be or not to be." Especially as the question "Why not" can be equally weighted with hesitation and resignation, further complicating either side of the argument.

But what are these questions posed for? They could be posed for pursuing a relationship, for maintaining a relationship. There are consistent references to a "he," and then what seems to be a consistent female speaker. But I like to think that the Why/Why Not could be posed to the presence of any narrative. I think Ronk might be posing an even more fundamental question about whether a narrative needs to be assigned to this book of poems.

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-reading really, for the shared tonal qualities of poems in sequence, per my thesis advisor's advice.

[Kristina Gashi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confusion at its finest. Why not? juxtaposes To be or not to be? and the Hamlet references are evident but the others not so much. Thought-provoking but boring.

[Pss · Rating 4 out of 5]

See

[Liam Malone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Her phrasing can be difficult because she uses language in a modern, but fun way that gets you thinking.