Journalists may be aware of all these things, but they use language primarily as a tool. That sensibility has deep roots in Ramke's background. The physicality of language was always there as part of my experience. Ramke looks at language like a Talmudic scholar, peeling back layers of meaning for each word he lays on the page.
Scripture is continually open.
Whenever you get into it there are further depths and complexities that might be available. Now in his 16th year at DU, Ramke first arrived in 1984, taking leave from Columbus College in Georgia to accept a temporary assignment at the University of Denver. He also teaches a number of creative writing workshops and literature courses, including intermediate creative writing for undergraduates, a course on the history and theory of poetry and a graduate creative-writing seminar. To create that kind of atmosphere is essential when you are sharing creative work. The author of seven books of poetry, including a new book, Airs, Waters, Places, due out in fall from the University of Iowa Press, Ramke has won the Yale Younger Poets Award, the Iowa Poetry Award and many other distinctions.