Vortex

As the wind unscatters me
Spindle hurricanes unwind
Direction from my horizontal eye

Blow down the ocean’s fences
And approach my wreckless remnant
Bones bedenizened by birds:

Or contrive a moment from
Whatever sheaf of breath remains
To edge a word along a wind-left wall.

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