Selected Poems from Noon Until Night
The Road Mothers with newborns in knotted slings, on their heads impossible towers of things, the old in carts, the children by the hand, these people crossing a cratered land are more than metaphor; but they are […]
Somerville Times: When I read the poetry collection Noon until Night by Richard Hoffman, I said to myself, “Damn, this is one wise dude.”
‘Noon until Night’ by Richard Hoffman On October 18, 2017, in Latest News, by The Somerville Times When I read the poetry collection Noon until Night by Richard Hoffman, I said to myself, “Damn, this is one wise dude.” I think Hoffman has a way of reporting back to us through his own scars, displaying the bullshit we […]
Good Friday
He’s gone to find the animal who tells the story that destroys us; he wants to interview the angel with the teeth; unearth disfigured miniature intaglios: clay dolls of heroes, words burnt into buried stones, the molds for masks we memorized and wear for worship, somber and nodding and simpler than we […]
HORIZON: November 14, 2016
A giant copper moon flares on the lake in the early dark, and on the car radio, talk. Talk trying to chew despair. Talk about fear to hide fear. Talk about talk about talk. Fifty cents, a dollar a word. It is all just talk until it isn’t. A day may come soon […]
Winter Psalm
The snow storm today inspires me to post this poem again, from Emblem: WINTER PSALM Boston snowbound, Logan closed, snowplows and salt-trucks flashing yellow, drifts tall as a man some places, visibility poor, I sit by the window and watch the snow blow sideways north-northeast, hot cup in hand, robe over pajamas. You have […]
Our Man in Boston 12/21/15
Robert Birnbaum, who has conversed with many more illustrious persons and personages than yours truly, recorded our colloquy on his popular site OUR MAN IN BOSTON. Our meandering, not to say rambling, conversation is HERE: His previous posting included book recommendations from a number of readers, including me. I think his whole enterprise of gathering, […]
ASSAY: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, special conference issue
ASSAY: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, special conference issue Included in this remarkable issue is the panel, Confronting Our Fears: Turning Adversity Into Art, in which I participated along with Jo-Scott Coe, Meredith Hall, Renee D’Aoust, and Michael Steinberg from the program: “Seasoned memoirists know that writing about our personal misfortunes, fears, and demons can […]
Also in the current issue of The Manhattan Review
SUFFERANCE Rain, rain, go on and rain. I’ve been given this time by my mother. I’ve known about water forever, and fear is no stranger either. Rain. Go on. Rain. The fires burn no matter what I do, the fires of my fathers, and will sear me one day, maybe soon, and also […]
LIBERA NOS A MALO
This poem appears in the current issue of The Manhattan Review, Vol. 17, No. 1: LIBERA NOS A MALO (for Mark Ludwig) 1. A friend halfway around the world refers to his home as his motherland. His email asks me to understand, but half a century in that last century purged for me […]
