The poetry of Bin Ramke might best be described as unsettling because of its disturbing themes. Ramke's poems offer a vision of a world characterized by empty relationships, doubt, and disillusionment, but the vision is put in perspective by his humor and sheer joy in language. Ramke evokes many questions and provides small comfort. If an examination of his work is unsettling, however, it is also rewarding.

Lloyd Binford Ramke was born in Port Neches, Texas, on 19 February 1947. His parents, Lloyd Binford Ramke (an engineer) and Melba Guidry Ramke, were born in Abbeville, Louisiana, and the young Ramke grew up in a strongly Cajun atmosphere. His mother spoke Cajun French, a language Ramke never learned but which attuned him to the politics of language. In his 1988 Denver Quarterly article on poet Derek Walcott, he writes, "We are victims of the history of the language we use, and the...