Ringer: Poems

by Rebecca Lehmann

Winner, 2018 Donald Hall Prize for Poetry

Finalist, 2020 Housatonic Book Awards

Ringer approaches womanhood from two an examination of ways that women’s identities are tied to domestic spaces, like homes, cars, grocery stores, and daycare centers; and a consideration of physical, sexual, and political violence against women, both historically and in the present day. Lehmann’s poems look outward, and go beyond cataloguing trespasses against women by biting back against patriarchal systems of oppression, and against perpetrators of violence against women. Many poems in Ringer are ecopoetical, functioning in a “junk” or “sad” pastoral mode, inhabiting abandoned, forgotten, and sometimes impoverished landscapes of rural America.

Genres: Poetry, Contemporary

96 pages, Paperback

First published September 24, 2019

About the author

Rebecca Lehmann is an award-winning poet and essayist. She has an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Maytag Fellow. She is the author of three collections of poetry: Between the Crackups; Ringer, winner of the AWP Donald Hall Prize (selected by Ross Gay); and The Sweating Sickness. Her writing has appeared in American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, NPR’s The Slowdown, and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day. She lives in Indiana with her family, where she is an associate professor of English and Gender and Women’s Studies at Saint Mary’s College. The Beheading Game is her debut novel.

Reviews

[Laurel Perez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a powerful collection driven by taking on Trump-era America misogyny, white nationalism, alternative facts and gun violence. And it does all of this while also talking about domesticity and personal loss. Propulsive language and an unrelenting imperative in her poems drives the reader forward with such force. She creates original female strength poetry (but not in a way that won't speak to everyone) in the face of miscarriage harassment and being a mother. It's a really interesting book for mothers to read. This whole collection has surprising images, word choices that are unexpected, and it makes you stop and think. Each poem in each section is performing something specific, they're all united but also very different really well done. 

[Deb Zich · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually read this beautiful collection of poems a year ago when my daughter, Rebecca Lehmann, sent the e-book to me. I’m re-reading Ringer for the third time and find new bits I hadn’t noticed the other times.
Personally knowing the author gives me a deeper insight into much of her work. I know the joy and sorrow that went into these poems. It brings me to laughter and tears as I read.
The interconnection between the three parts of the book is wonderful. For now my favorite poems are “Epithalamion” and the three poems titled “Time Travelers”. But I’m sure my favorites will change the next time I read Ringer.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection took me forever to read because each poem was so heavy and articulate. They were incredibly powerful as examinations of the Trump-era while being a mom, a teacher, a woman, and a white, cis person. I loved the beauty and power of her vocabulary range, and her format was jam-packed in a way that was intentionally overwhelming. So good! (Also Ross Gay and Erika Meitner did blurbs on the back and if that doesn’t make a statement about the quality of contemporary poetry, idk what does.)

[Andrea Teyhmann · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I found some of the poems rather thoughtful and moving, about three-quarters of the book is less than endearing. While I would really like to push for a higher rating, I just can't bring myself to rate the book any higher than two stars. The author tends to be slightly clumsy and often slips into something more like vague ideological preaching than actual poetry. While I understand the reasons some of the ways the poetry was written from a technical standpoint, the author's skills seem inconsistent and sometimes far less professional than I might have hoped. There are times in the book that come close to speaking about real, wider issues but seem to - at critical moments - do a 180 and completely miss the mark. Particularly, there is a lot of donning the mantle of victimhood, something I refuse to be painted by personally, because of any of the groups I belong to. Additionally, a number of the poems feel like they have been distilled from fabricated experience, rather than the genuine thing - perhaps the reason they fail to resonate in a way that might otherwise be meaningful. While I regret paying for this book, I look forward to other, more genuine works the author might produce.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Susanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous poems about womanhood, motherhood, nature, and our environment, both physical and political.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved some of these poems; some of them were too dense for my appreciation. A talented poet.