Remembering Rochelle Ratner: "Fish Tank"

The VPR Poem of the Week is Rochelle Ratner’s “Fish Tank,” a prose poem which appeared in the Fall/Winter 2004-2005 issue (Volume VI, Number 1) of Valparaiso Poetry Review.

Rochelle Ratner, who passed away March 31st at the age of 59, was the author of sixteen collections of poetry, including Practicing to Be a Woman: New and Selected Poems (Scarecrow Press, 1982), Someday Songs (BkMk Press, 1992), House and Home (Marsh Hawk Press, 2003), and Balancing Acts (Marsh Hawk Press, 2006), which was a finalist for the Milt Kessler Book Award. Ratner also authored two novels published by Coffee House Press, Bobby’s Girl (1986) and The Lion’s Share (1991). An anthology she edited, Bearing Life: Women’s Writings on Childlessness, was published by The Feminist Press in 2000.

Her poetry and criticism appeared widely in literary journals, including Library Journal, Nation, Poetry Review, and Shenandoah. Over the decades she contributed to literature, Ratner served as an editor for a number of periodicals, including more than twenty-five years as Executive Editor or Associate Editor of American Book Review. In addition, Rochelle Ratner was a member of the Book Critics Circle board of directors, and for a couple years she was the National Book Critics Circle Vice President for Publications.

I am pleased Valparaiso Poetry Review was able to present Rochelle Ratner’s “Fish Tank”:

FISH TANK

It just seems perverse to her, to have this fish tank dead center in the ophthalmologist’s waiting room. To have people sit trapped and facing those small moving forms, their reflections captured in the glass at different angles. Black and white against green foliage and rich brown coral, small stripes, wide stripes, hints of red, not to mention pebbles. Deep unmoving and unflinching eyes. Relentless sound of gurgling. New shapes appearing out of nowhere. One with long, thin whiskers that she didn’t see before.

Tuesday of each week “One Poet’s Notes” highlights an exceptional work by a poet selected from the archives of Valparaiso Poetry Review with the recommendation that readers revisit it. Please check the sidebar to view the list of poets and works that have been past “Poem of the Week” selections. Additionally, readers are reminded that VPR pages are best read with the browser font preference in which they were set, 12 pt. Times New Roman, in order to guarantee the stanza alignment and the breaks of longer lines are preserved.