Customer Reviews

Darkening Water: Poems

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This is a wonderful collection of poems of great variety, dexterity and eloquence. Many themes are present, from the evolutionary insights of "Evidence," which vividly evoke the sensory experience of our Neanderthal ancestors or earlier ones, resurrecting prehistoric remains into the immediacy of flesh and firelight, to subtle evocations of immortality in simple labor (and, by implication, art) in "A Pile of Rocks." From the poignant and beautifully imaged sonnet on the fragility of memory in an academic - or any other - setting, "Philosophy," to the evocative lament of time's passage in "Emblems," to the incandescent, bird-inspired energy of "Called Back," with its "silky wash of dots banding the heavens...Time made visible as space...the oldest light."
The depth of the finest poems in this volume is startling and profound. Phrases triumph in unexpected and inspired ways, even as the subject, form and scope of individual poems keep the reader invigorated, surprises on every page as tantalizing in their rhythms as the turbulent surf beautifully photographed on the cover. I heartily recommend this volume, whether as an introduction to, or for continued appreciation of, the work of one of our greatest poets.

Daniel Hoffman, Darkening Water (Louisiana State University Press, 2002)

Daniel Hoffman has quietly become one of the giants of American verse over the past few decades. I hadn't picked up one of his books since Middens of the Tribe, which I read at least ten years ago (and it had been sitting on my shelf for quite a while before that). I'm quite happy to have rediscovered him.

Hoffman creates startlingly real characters for poetry, which usually doesn't work with characters at all, or gives them secondary significance to image and language. Hoffman does so not by elevating the characters over those two important pieces of the poetic puzzle, but making them of equal weight. He does so without a shred of overbearing message, which is what makes these poems so different than your average fare. As well, Hoffman is an accomplished writer in rhyme and traditional forms; Darkening Water often feels like reading a manuscript produced during the waning years of popular traditional verse, but with a completely modern sensibility. The only comparison I can even begin to see is to John Hollander, but Hoffman seems to have his feet farther on the ground than does Hollander.

Fine stuff, demanding careful reading and much thought. Well worth it. *** ½