Ocular Proof - Tapa blanda

Taking her title from Shakespeare's Othello, a play that questions the veracity of what eyes actually see, Ronk explores not only what each of us sees, but also how photographs modify sight as they simultaneously capture, distort, frame, and encourage discovery.-- "Publishers Weekly" (1/1/2016 12:00:00 AM) "National Poetry Series winner Ronk (Vertigo) here offers an elegant, supremely intelligent investigation of photography both as document and as proof that we cannot fully capture the moment through art, memory, or any other means. What is represented in an Atget photograph, for instance, is not the tree itself but "more of what light and wind/ and Paris are in the exact year it was," and an image may show scuffed stairs, even suggest the smell of dust, but can't get at "the unlocatable bereavement left on the stairs to be carried up when you go." What's left? Our minds grappling with the world, as Ronk shows photographer and viewer grappling. VERDICT Highly recommended; this is both intellectually astute and lit-up, sharply observed verse."-- "Library Journal (starred review)" (1/1/2016 12:00:00 AM)

Taking its title from Shakespeare's Othello, a play that questions the veracity of what eyes actually see, Ocular Proof explores not only what each of us sees, but also how photographs modify sight as they capture, distort, frame, and simultaneously encourage discovery. These poems play off critical insights about the function of photographs and the power of visual imagery in the modern world and yet are decidedly personal. They address the unreality of one's own life, the illegibility of the past and future, and our strong attraction to focused details such as "Kertesz photographing stairs extending past the small figure and out of sight."