Traditionally, the ghazal, an ancient Persian form, has a lot of requirements (couplets, rhyme, refrain), but one specific subject--love. Especially illicit and unattainable love. So what are readers to make of Ron Koertge's ghazals which are about, among other things, the Seven Dwarfs, Technicolor, and Mothra? Well, you probably can't beat him, so you may as well join him as--with a white hot imagination and irrepressible and unpredictable lyricism--he bends a few rules and breaks the rest. And yet his subject is still love. But not illicit or unattainable, since what he really loves is language. And language loves him back. There it is on every page, lying at his feet, panting.

Ron Koertge (pronounced Kur-chee) was born April 22, 1940 in Olney, Illinois to William Henry Koertge (deceased) and Bulis Olive Koertge. He is married to Bianca Richards. Koertge received his BA from the University of Illinois and his MA from the University of Arizona. He taught English at Pasadena City College from 1965 to 2001. Koertge is the author of many books of poetry including Fever, Sex Object, 12 Photographs of Yellowstone, The Hired Nose, The Father Poems, The Jockey Poems, Men Under Fire, Diary Cows, Life on the Edge of the Continent, High School Dirty Poems, Making Love to Roget's Wife, and Geography of the Forehead. He is also the recipient of an NEA fellowship in Literature (Poetry) and a California Arts Council grant (Poetry). Koertge's work has been included in Best American Poetry (1999).