Two Poems by Jack Hopper

GREENWICH TIME

Gratefully the eyelids close

but not entirely, just in case

a dream drops by unbidden

but welcome at any hour,

like my now dead West Coast friend

who mid-beers used to call so late at night,

forgetting the three-hour difference

so both coasts were for him

“11 o’clock and all’s well!”

I’d listen just a little

then laughter began

and my ears swung wide.

We’d go like that for an hour

from Wittgenstein to Bach,

Woody Allen to college profs we’d had

till eyeballs ebbed

and ears creaked on their hinges.

Then said goodnights

and fifteen minutes later

said good night again. 

And all was well, was well. 

 AS IF

Clutching a pen

as if it could spring light

and illuminate a line,

I listen for the right

word, hoping I have

an ear to hear it.

Outside, no sound.

No passing plow,

no shovels shoveling snow.

Only the hill, waiting

to echo something

I’m expected to say,

And batteries of crows

gathering as if to challenge

questions I’ve yet to ask. 

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Jack Hopper is a writer, chiefly of poetry. He has been an editor for the academic publisher AMS Press and a co-founder of Cayuga Lake Books. He has published three books of poetry, most recently, Doubles: Poems 1995 - 2012. He founded and edited, Works, A Quarterly of Writing. He lives in Ithaca, NY, where he has been the Poet Laureate for Tompkins County. You can learn more about Jack on his web site: www.johnhopperauthor.com

Two Books From Djelloul Marbrook

Rarely do I receive two books from one author in the same mail, especially where one is a work of fiction and the other poetry. However, this was the case the last month, on the day before the big snowstorm, when I received copies of Djelloul Marbrook's latest releases; A Warding Circle: New York Stories and Riding Thermals to Winter Grounds. Both books were engaging and skillfully written. I was glad to be trapped inside with them while the snow melted. I thought of Marbrook, who lives in the Hudson River Valley and was probably hunkered down in the same storm over there.

A Warding Circle: New York Stories contains a novella and several short stories. The works reveal the author's intimate knowledge of New York, both the city, with its devious art world, and the state, especially the Catskills. The book is dedicated to the well-known artist I. Rice Pereira, who was Marbrook's aunt.

In the title story a young woman artist is struck by lightning during a storm in the mountains. She finds that her mind has been turned around and all the conventions that she has lived by now seem absurd. Based partly on the life of Marbrook's aunt, it describes a world where an artist's success is often determined by things other than their artistic merit.

Riding Thermals to Winter Grounds is Marbrook's fifth volume of poetry. There is a great deal of crossover here. While the stories in the fiction book are infused with poetry, these poems become rather narrative. This results in some very powerful lines, such as: "And then, near the end of my life, I become the man I wanted to be without the fuss and bother of giving a damn." Lines like this also seem to establish a leitmotif, if you will, for the book: the words of a man grown old enough to be comfortable with what he has become. And what Marbrook has become is an excellent writer. He has a background of many years writing for newspapers, which shows in the way Marbrook has mastered his craft. These are two of the most powerful books I have had the pleasure to read in some time.

SG

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