Not Our Own Is This World

What does it mean to have an individual identity? In this short collection of poems, B. Ronald Judd explores the obstacles that the modern world imposes upon our understanding of individual identity, while also exploring the foundations of individual identity in both nature and community. Far from having total freedom to define ourselves, we must at last submit to the limitations that are imposed upon us. We must discover that this world is not our own.

B. Ronald Judd was born in Princeton, Illinois. He holds two bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and French respectively, having studied in Angers, France, during the fall semester of 1997. He was heavily influenced by the French Symbolist poets as he completed his master’s degree in comparative literature from the University of Illinois in Springfield. He currently teaches English at a Catholic high school in Springfield, Illinois, where he has lived since 1998