{"id":1393,"date":"2017-05-26T17:58:48","date_gmt":"2017-05-26T17:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/?post_type=product&#038;p=1393"},"modified":"2024-01-12T05:29:56","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T05:29:56","slug":"noon-until-night-richard-hoffman","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/product\/noon-until-night-richard-hoffman\/","title":{"rendered":"<em>Noon until Night<\/em>, Richard Hoffman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Richard Hoffman\u2019s long, complex title poem, which anchors his concerns throughout the book, he says with characteristic lucid candor, \u201c\u2026now when longevity itself begins to seem at once\/the only wealth worth having and the booby prize.\u201d It should be noted that <em>Noon until Night<\/em> is not a book about noon until evening. Yet the darkness that night suggests has its rays of hope in it, as Hoffman artfully meditates on how we live and, without sentimentality, manage to go on.<br \/>\n\u2014Stephen Dunn<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If Anton Chekhov returned as a modern-day poet, Richard Hoffman would be his name. His poems reverberate with the same lucid witness and precision. Bridging histories local and cultural, they draw on literary traditions while simultaneously heralding experiment and invention. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u2014Terrance Hayes<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Richard Hoffman is a fiercely gifted poet whose stanzas revel in the infinite possibilities of language, and jolt, surprise, and satisfy at every turn. This is work to be savored and embraced.<br \/>\n\u2014 Patricia Smith<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Hoffman is the poet traveling our nightmare of now, our descent into a lack of love for one another, but along the way he finds etchings of hope on the walls.<br \/>\n\u2014\u00a0Afaa Michael Weaver<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve known about water\/ forever, and fear\/ is no stranger either.\u201d\u00a0 <a class=\"twitter-share-button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" data-size=\"large\" data-text=\"&quot;I've known about water\/ forever, and fear\/ is no stranger either.\u201d\" data-url=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2sWpQaJ\" data-via=\"BarrowStreetInc\" data-show-count=\"false\">Tweet<\/a><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The scar prefers to travel light,\/ sometimes disguised as pleasure.\u201d\u00a0 <a class=\"twitter-share-button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" data-size=\"large\" data-text=\"&quot;The scar prefers to travel light,\/ sometimes disguised as pleasure.\u201d\" data-url=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2sWpQaJ\" data-via=\"BarrowStreetInc\" data-show-count=\"false\">Tweet<\/a><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>The Road<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Mothers with newborns in knotted slings,<br \/>\non their heads impossible towers of things,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">the old in carts, the children by the hand,<br \/>\nthese people crossing a cratered land<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">are more than metaphor;<br \/>\nbut they are also metaphor.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">We are the truth to one another. Look:<br \/>\ndon\u2019t wait for some historian\u2019s book<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">to understand this (then it will be too late.)<br \/>\nThis is the unchecked power of the State,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">the end of empathy, the rise of Mars,<br \/>\nthe avarice that in the end mars<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">all our laws and medicine and art.<br \/>\nShow me one fleeing person\u2019s heart<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">and I will show you a thousand griefs<br \/>\nfor loves, hopes, memories, beliefs<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">that war has undermined.<br \/>\nCorpses plowed under, mined<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">roads and fields, the groves and orchards<br \/>\npoisoned, fathers and brothers tortured,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">hope abandoned with the other heavy furniture \u2014<br \/>\nit isn\u2019t much of a road, the future,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">if you don\u2019t know where<br \/>\nit goes or it goes nowhere.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rune<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">A day nears, feast<br \/>\nof a saint unborn,<br \/>\nunlike our forebears\u2019<br \/>\nor any we have known.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">We know how dark<br \/>\nare powers kept in darkness<br \/>\n(a broken lock, a stopped clock,<br \/>\nmasks, and lies.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">When we wake<br \/>\nthat unexampled day,<br \/>\nwill we believe ourselves<br \/>\nfree or broken?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Applicable bookseller\/retail discount on bulk orders of 10+ copies automatically applied at checkout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[20],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1393","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-poetry","8":"first","9":"instock","10":"shipping-taxable","11":"purchasable","12":"product-type-simple"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/1393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=1393"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=1393"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=1393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}