Happy Birthday, Allen

Today is the birthday of American poet, too early dead, Allen Hoey. He was born in 1952 in Kingston, New York, and died last year.

Drinking Alone

after Li Po

Now, with my hair gone gray
and my beard so white and snowy,
I glance over the snow-crusted
slope down to the frozen pond and
wonder if the field itself will feel
the grasses turning green with
spring or whether the struggle
to rise again, battered by cold
and snow, then coaxed by sun-
lathered heat, brings only
grief. Old sweet-gum just beyond
my window, horse-chestnut
desolate in the February winds,
what have you learned? Can you
give me just a hint? Beyond this
glass of wine, only darkness,
darkness and cold longing for light.


Find his long poem Provençal Light here