Auroville Today - May 2008 - Between Seasons – Review by Alan

Between Seasons is the title of Lloyd Hofman's new collection of poems. By turns whimsical, lyrical, melancholic, amused and quietly passionate, these are intimate poems which draw the reader quietly into Lloyd's world. He's a close and sensitive observer of nature – a mantis is extinguished in his candle flame, a young bamboo “strokes autumn skies”, a tree frog leaps into his hair – but there are also poems of love lost and love regained. Above all, these are the poems of a man who has cut the cables of the past and is shaping a new self out of solitude and the simple contacts of daily life.

life seasons by
as bird song dips
the forest without
into the soul
unstudied, bare

The force of this poetry lies in its simplicity and integrity. As he puts it in Clay Poems:

My aim was a few words
to deal with knowing but
light in coming across.

A small body of speech
to be true to itself
and fit for any use.

Sometimes a poem fails to sustain a certain tone or feeling. The wrong word, an awkward rhythm or an abrupt shift of register breaks the spell he has beautifully created. But this is a minor quibble. Overall, I felt privileged to have been allowed a glimpse of a sensitive being in the act of exploring itself, as well as learning when to let go:

Sometimes I go beyond
the fringes of my thoughts
and artificial space
at ease in not knowing,
not seeing myself, and
at one with the outcome

Alan

Between Seasons, by Lloyd Hofman.

Published by aurovillearts.com

For information contact: avipro@auroville.org.in