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 made me to seek refuge
and charged me to care for my brothers.
How cruel. That could be You out there
howling, cracking the trees, burying everything.
What could I possibly want from You
that would not undo the whole world as it is?
Richard Hoffman, “Winter Psalm” from Emblem. Copyright © 2011 by Richard Hoffman. Reprinted by permission of Barrow Street Press.
Source:
Emblem (Barrow Street Press, 2011)
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Poet
Richard Hoffman
b. 1949
POET’S REGION
U.S., New England
Subjects
Living,
Nature,
Winter,
Religion,
God & the Divine,
Social Commentaries,
Cities & Urban Life
Poetic Terms
Free Verse,
Quatrain
Poet and teacher Richard Hoffman earned a BA in English from Fordham University and an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College. He is the author of the poetry collections Without Paradise: Poems (2002) and Gold Star Road (2007), which was selected by Molly Peacock for the Barrow Street Press Poetry Prize and won the Sheila Motton Award from the New England Poetry Club.
Hoffman is also the author of the memoir Half the House . . .
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