What do you think?
Rate this book
Yellow Moving Van
Ron Koertge’s Yellow Moving Van is a collection of relaxed and buoyant and sometimes very funny poems that address Desi & Lucy with the same courtesy as Walt Whitman. The author celebrates his roots in the Mid-West and a few pages later stops off in Transylvania. These poems like to sometimes embrace and sometimes confound expectations, and they all stand together as enemies of the murky and pompous. There is apparently no subject—Prometheus, a fifty foot woman, or Death himself—that is unwilling to fall under his spell.
- GenresPoetry
65 pages, Paperback
Published October 16, 2018
12 people want to read
About the author
Ron Koertge
74 books102 followersAsk Ron Koertge what he brings to the realm of young adult fiction, and the seasoned author responds matter-of-factly. "I write dialogue well, and I'm funny," he says--an assessment few would argue with. "I like iconoclasm and practice it in my fiction. I don't like pretense or hypocrisy. I'm almost always irreverent."
A faculty member for more than 35 years at Pasadena City College, where he has taught everything from Shakespeare to remedial writing, Ron Koertge is the author of several acclaimed novels, most of them for young adults. That Ron Koertge is a master at capturing teenagers' voices--often in witty repartee--is fully evident in MARGAUX WITH AN X, the story of a sharp-tongued beauty and a quirky, quick-witted loner. "MARGAUX WITH AN X started as a short story, but the heroine wouldn't let me alone," the author says. "She had a story to tell, and she wanted a whole novel to tell it in." Another unlikely pairing is found in STONER & SPAZ, Ron Koertge's funny, in-your-face tale of a young cinephile with cerebral palsy and the stoner who steals his heart. "My wife works with the disabled," the writer says of his inspiration for the novel, which quickly garnered critical acclaim. "One night she came home and told me about a young man she'd been working with. He had C.P. and a terrific sense of humor. Coincidentally, that day I had talked to a former student of mine who'd recently been in rehab for substance abuse. What would happen, I wondered, if those two knew each other?"
In addition to his young adult novels, Ron Koertge writes poetry, and has been dubbed "the wisest, most entertaining wiseguy in American poetry" by poet-laureate Billy Collins. SHAKESPEARE BATS CLEANUP is narrated by a straight-talking, fourteen-year-old first baseman who has been benched by mono and decides to take a swing at writing poetry. Written entirely in free verse, with examples of several poetic forms slipped into the mix--including a sonnet, haiku, pastoral, and even a pantoum--SHAKESPEARE BATS CLEANUP is a veritable English teacher's dream. "The interest in SHAKESPEARE BATS CLEANUP is less with the arc of the plot than with the individual poems, some of which demonstrate poetic form, some of which tell the story," the author says. "One of my biggest challenges was to write like a fourteen-year-old who has a knack for writing poetry, and not just sound like a sixty-one-year-old pretending to be one!"
The author's first book with Candlewick, THE BRIMSTONE JOURNALS, is also a novel written in free verse, with 15 different teenage characters narrating four or five poems each. "The book started to nag me a few months before the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, and I started to make notes in the form of poems," he says of the hauntingly prescient work. "BRIMSTONE needed to move at high velocity, and this form is perfect for that: no tail fins, no leather seats, no moon roof. Just get in and go."
Ron Koertge grew up in an agricultural area in an old mining town in Illinois, just across the Mississippi from St. Louis, Missouri. There he learned to "drive a tractor and buck hay bales, which are clearly useful skills in Los Angeles," he quips. He and his wife live in South Pasadena, California.
A faculty member for more than 35 years at Pasadena City College, where he has taught everything from Shakespeare to remedial writing, Ron Koertge is the author of several acclaimed novels, most of them for young adults. That Ron Koertge is a master at capturing teenagers' voices--often in witty repartee--is fully evident in MARGAUX WITH AN X, the story of a sharp-tongued beauty and a quirky, quick-witted loner. "MARGAUX WITH AN X started as a short story, but the heroine wouldn't let me alone," the author says. "She had a story to tell, and she wanted a whole novel to tell it in." Another unlikely pairing is found in STONER & SPAZ, Ron Koertge's funny, in-your-face tale of a young cinephile with cerebral palsy and the stoner who steals his heart. "My wife works with the disabled," the writer says of his inspiration for the novel, which quickly garnered critical acclaim. "One night she came home and told me about a young man she'd been working with. He had C.P. and a terrific sense of humor. Coincidentally, that day I had talked to a former student of mine who'd recently been in rehab for substance abuse. What would happen, I wondered, if those two knew each other?"
In addition to his young adult novels, Ron Koertge writes poetry, and has been dubbed "the wisest, most entertaining wiseguy in American poetry" by poet-laureate Billy Collins. SHAKESPEARE BATS CLEANUP is narrated by a straight-talking, fourteen-year-old first baseman who has been benched by mono and decides to take a swing at writing poetry. Written entirely in free verse, with examples of several poetic forms slipped into the mix--including a sonnet, haiku, pastoral, and even a pantoum--SHAKESPEARE BATS CLEANUP is a veritable English teacher's dream. "The interest in SHAKESPEARE BATS CLEANUP is less with the arc of the plot than with the individual poems, some of which demonstrate poetic form, some of which tell the story," the author says. "One of my biggest challenges was to write like a fourteen-year-old who has a knack for writing poetry, and not just sound like a sixty-one-year-old pretending to be one!"
The author's first book with Candlewick, THE BRIMSTONE JOURNALS, is also a novel written in free verse, with 15 different teenage characters narrating four or five poems each. "The book started to nag me a few months before the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, and I started to make notes in the form of poems," he says of the hauntingly prescient work. "BRIMSTONE needed to move at high velocity, and this form is perfect for that: no tail fins, no leather seats, no moon roof. Just get in and go."
Ron Koertge grew up in an agricultural area in an old mining town in Illinois, just across the Mississippi from St. Louis, Missouri. There he learned to "drive a tractor and buck hay bales, which are clearly useful skills in Los Angeles," he quips. He and his wife live in South Pasadena, California.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 15, 2021
Poems that I really enjoyed:
Fright Night
Room 303
Coyote
Song of Myselfie
Whispering Pines
The Associate Dean
Life on the Farm
The Other Annunciation
A Surprise Visit
Mattress Palace
Fright Night
Room 303
Coyote
Song of Myselfie
Whispering Pines
The Associate Dean
Life on the Farm
The Other Annunciation
A Surprise Visit
Mattress Palace
March 9, 2021
Boundlessly entertaining, as in:
Church Camp
After every evening service, somebody gave his life
to Jesus, then took it back the next day
when Amber Del Campo appeared in a red Jantzen.
She dove from the rickety dock, and water opened
its arms. She disappeared without a trace,
then surfaced beside the flat rock where she lay
under the fortunate sun.
After lights out I’d pretend to be asleep and the older
boys whispered about her slowly taking off her
suit in the shower. The same suit. The same
shower. The same small towel.
One rainy afternoon, Amber challenged me to a game
of Chinese checkers. “Boys are so stupid,” she said.
She’d contemplate the next move and toy with the tiny
gold cross that disappeared into her sundress.
That night after lights out somebody whispered,
“When she leaned over, could you see anything?”
That’s when I began my career as a storyteller
whom one critic would call “wildly imaginative
and full of surprises.”
Ron Koertge
Church Camp
After every evening service, somebody gave his life
to Jesus, then took it back the next day
when Amber Del Campo appeared in a red Jantzen.
She dove from the rickety dock, and water opened
its arms. She disappeared without a trace,
then surfaced beside the flat rock where she lay
under the fortunate sun.
After lights out I’d pretend to be asleep and the older
boys whispered about her slowly taking off her
suit in the shower. The same suit. The same
shower. The same small towel.
One rainy afternoon, Amber challenged me to a game
of Chinese checkers. “Boys are so stupid,” she said.
She’d contemplate the next move and toy with the tiny
gold cross that disappeared into her sundress.
That night after lights out somebody whispered,
“When she leaned over, could you see anything?”
That’s when I began my career as a storyteller
whom one critic would call “wildly imaginative
and full of surprises.”
Ron Koertge
December 10, 2024
"Yellow Moving Van" is a delightful collection of poetry that brims with creativity, humor, and poignant storytelling. The poems range from vividly imaginative narratives to reflective moments that capture the quirks and complexities of life, offering readers surprises at every turn. Standout pieces like "Church Camp" and "The Associate Dean" showcase the poet's knack for blending wit with emotional depth, while titles such as "Fright Night" and "Life on the Farm" are boundlessly entertaining and memorable. Each poem feels like a glimpse into a uniquely crafted world, filled with charm and unexpected connections. This collection is a testament to the power of inventive language and the joy of storytelling through verse.
March 3, 2021
Creative and inventive poetry collection.
August 27, 2022
Lots of fun poems in this collection, but nothing that truly stood out to me.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews