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. 

*   *   *

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