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Welcome

Abundance: Selected and New Poems

More songs by Tim Young, with lyrics by Jerry Ratch, also available on itunes, spotify, youtube, and others, download please! "Love Me Like It's Midnight," "Nope." And more to come. An album forthcoming, look for it on itunes soon. Contact me to collaborate on songs if you write music.

The author
When I wrote Puppet X, at 26
In front of City Lights Books in San Francisco

Brand new book of poems, from the past decade: THE SIX SECOND RULE.
available in a stunning limited edition, perfect bound, 36 pages of my best work, from Any Puppet Press, designed and produced by Sherry Karver. Priced at $12.00, plus $3 for shipping. email author at jerryratch@yahoo.com or anypuppetpress@gmail.com

also: Brand spanking new book of poems: "The Bend in the Road." Same terms as above. As well as: "How the Other Half Lives," and "Poetry and Reality Do Not Mix."

NEW! Available only on Kindle. A book of short stories entitled: "Powdered Sugar on Bare Skin at the Nudist Camp." The majority of my books are now available on Kindle, for only $2.99 each! Heck of a deal!

Also, a newer novel, only available on Amazon Kindle Books: "The Nudist Camp at the End of the Rainbow." A wild tale. My best selling book! $2.99. Cheap!

Most of my books are available from the author. Email me at jerryratch@yahoo.com for information and prices.

Information for collectors on the Newsletter page. Click on the Newsletter link above. Signed copies of most books are available from the author directly. Contact jerryratch@yahoo.com.
Agent, publisher, collector inquiries are welcome.

Newly available, a memoir entitled: A BODY DIVIDED. The story of a one-armed boy growing up in a two-fisted world: in a time of Polio. Also on Kindle.

"A gritty and valiant story...I would be glad to recommend it."
-- Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Rave from amazon.com review:

"Much more solid content than the rationalizing wimps that fill up the couch on Oprah's show. A literate and inspiring memoir that stands well above the usual marketplace driven drivel. Recommended."

-- Tony Crowell


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New Novel available for publication: "The Great San Francisco Poetry Wars: or How the Sixties Ended."
- "Hilarious! A romp!"
(60,000 words)

“Great stuff. I feel like if Kerouac and Vonnegut had had a baby you might be it, with Heller as your god-father maybe. Really funny."
-- Thomas Calder, fictionaut

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Now, another new novel available: "ADULTERATED MEMOIRS."
(40,000 words)

Erotic, Philosophical, Mythic.

"A lot like Henry Miller."
-- Dev Gayley

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Novel:

WILD DREAMS OF REALITY, 2001 (195 pp)

"The almost, but not quite innocent directness of Ratch's savvy little novel is irresistible to me. I read it in a sitting. I'm glad real writers still want to write books this way."
- Richard Ford, jacket quote.

This novel is available for re-issue. Copies are for sale from the author, as well as through amazon.com.
Now available on Kindle Books.
Also available: screenplay for the novel (110 pp)

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That may be me spare-changing that couple in that painting in Paris.

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Poetry Books:

A Few Guilty Pleasures (Any Puppet Press, 2018)

How The Other Half Lives (Any Puppet Press, 2015)

Poetry and Reality Do Not Mix (Any Puppet Press, 2016)

The Bend In the Road (Any Puppet Press, 2014)

The Six Second Rule (Any Puppet Press, 2012)

Puppet X, (Shameless Hussy Press, 1973, 1976)
available at amazon.com

Clown Birth, (Shameless Hussy Press, 1975)

The Suburban Poem, (Nemesis Press, 1975)

Osiris, (Cloud Marauder Press, 1977)

Chaucer Marginalia, (Sombre Reptiles Press, 1979)

Rose, (Sombre Reptiles Press, 1979)

Hot Weather: Selected Poems, (Scarecrow Press, 1982)

Chairman, (Sombre Reptiles Press, 1982)

Helen, (Cloud Marauder Press, 1984)

Lenin's Paintings, (Illuminati Press, 1987)

Light, (O Books, 1988)

Homeowner Haikus, (Frog, Ltd, 2005),
co-author: Sherry Karver

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The author is available to read from his work, and has done hundreds of readings to date.

Other manuscripts in development. Inquiries invited.
See: Newsletter.

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And a recent poem:


Pigeons Having Sex on an Air Conditioner
in New York



“The place is great”
we told the rental agent
“except for one thing

“Pigeons are nesting
on the air conditioner
in the bedroom window

“At 7 a.m. the pigeons
were having sex
on the air conditioner

“They started getting really wild
and throwing themselves
against the window”

There was a pause
while you could distinctly hear
the rental agent swallow

He cleared his throat
“That sounds kind of hot”
he said

--

True story