Journey to the End

1.

On a little peninsula
In a dredged-out bay
An old man with a sack
Upon his shoulder
Feeds the crows

2.

Along a tiny peninsula
As white as salt
An old man with a heavy sack
Upon his shoulder
Saunters feeding
Crows

3.

Cinematomorphic flashes from
Peninsular train windows
Railroad the complete splitting
Of the crow-peopled cosmogony:
(Yet knowing that to be
Is better than to be going.)

4.

Apocalyptics unanimous
Disengage and deburrow
Black as corby night descends
The moon knifes down
Upon the tiny salt-flat-white
Peninsula.

5.

An old man with a heavy sack
Flings it to the crows.

Credit

From Tau by Philip Lamantia and Journey to the End by John Hoffman, edited by Garrett Caples © 2008 by City Lights and Nancy Peters for the Estate of Philip Lamantia. Reprinted with the permission of City Lights Books.

Author

John Hoffman

John Hoffman was born in Menlo Park, California, in 1928. Little is known about Hoffman’s early life, though he expressed an interest in poetry in his youth, discovering the works of French poets Arthur Rimbaud and the Comte de Lautréamont, who wrote under the nom de plume Isidore Lucien Ducasse, in his father’s personal library.

Date Published

01/01/2008