In poem after poem, she experiments with new idioms, subjects, and personae. What all of the poems share, though, is a focus on sensuality, a rich immersion in the physical world, but always conveyed through a simple meter and spare language. She doesn’t send one rushing for the dictionary; her fireworks explode at ordinary scenes: teenagers hanging out by the river, a furnace belching chrome smoke in the iron belt, a girl wedged between her parents at a friend’s mom’s funeral. Ragan’s work enables the reader to perceive beauty in the quotidian with a depth that comes only from the most fully imagined poetry. First Prize: