Earlier this year we mourned the passing of the poet and beloved teacher Ralph Angel. Ralph contributed a chapbook of extraordinary poems to Strays Pack 2. This was, tragically, his final publication; he passed away unexpectedly on March 6, 2020.
Ralph was the Edith R. White Distinguished Professor at the University of Redlands and a member of the MFA in Writing faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts. His fellow VCFA faculty member, the poet Richard Jackson, wrote a beautiful remembrance for Ralph in the latest issue of the VCFA magazine.
Rick writes about the “intimate distance” of Ralph’s poetry, captured so movingly in his Strays contribution. Rick cites an untitled poem from the collection. The poem “starts off with all the bustle of everyday life,” he writes:
… then moves to ashes, tears, “whispering aspens,” and ends: “an angel comes and taps / my lips.” An angel. How fitting. How consoling to think so. The invisible, the silence. The absent presence.
Following Ralph’s footsteps, Rick will be a featured poet in Strays Pack 3, which we’ll release this December 15.
We’re out of Ralph’s limited-edition chapbook, but there are still copies available through SPD.