Eric Hoffman, Five Poems

Eric Hoffman

~  

Sick at first. The sea was rough.

Assembled Lycidas from memory

Like Isis Osiris’ broken body.

Once the storm eased, spent

Long hours on deck, learning

To use the sextant, lamenting

My poor knowledge of the sea,

Of geometry and astronomy,

Drawing conclusions from everything,

The voyage at sea metaphor for life,

Rich with sentiment and symbol.

~

Freedom. Inside, terrible freedom.

Outside, thousands of laws,

Of physics and of men.

But inside, that temptation

Overruns us, rendering the soul

A plaything for vice,

Tarnishing the white walls

Of our reputation.

My ministry in tatters, and

My Ellen now so sadly altered.

And where I encounter a chilling fear

She expected serenity

Even when her every breath

Offered her distress. And now

The invisible multitude of all

Breathing things becomes

A silent choir.

~

My eye is American.

Like a chemist assembling substances

I bring myself to sea

In search of affinities –

The bubble –

By its birthright – expands

And my American eye

Is like a child’s again

~

I write empty sentences

In my journal. In death,

Words become poor company,

Expecting of them more

Than they have to offer.

We search this desolate home

Looking for healing and peace

As if they are mis-placed objects.

‘Teach me I am forgotten by the dead

And the dead is by herself forgot.’

Retreat into reading:

Plotinus. The Bible.

Did Matthew, Mark, Luke and John exist?

When all else fell to ruin

Their lonely words

Cried out faith

In the wilderness

Crying out.

~

Why must I travel across the sea?

Under the lee of the spencer sheet

I found a solitary thoughtful hour –

The vast envelope of sky

Lit by the same light that illuminates

Distant shores, painted canvases,

Carved marbles, renowned towns,

These places and names

From childhood

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Eric Hoffman is the author of six collections of poems, of which The American Eye (Dos Madres Press, 2011) and Everything Is Actual (Lone Willow Press, 2011) are the most recent.  His poetry and prose have appeared in Talisman, Rain Taxi, Smartish Pace, Cultural Society, Poetry Flash and Jacket.  In 2009 he edited a George Oppen festschrift, All This Strangeness, for Big Bridge.

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RECONFIGURATIONS: A Journal for Poetics & Poetry / Literature & Culture, http://reconfigurations.blogspot.com/, ISSN: 1938-3592, Volume 5 (2011): Disappearance