Angela Hoffman 

keeping watch

This eve a flock of sheep has wandered 

out of their barn all worn into the fenced pasture

frozen, still, silent

keeping watch, it seems. 

Their breath hangs in the air, gentle.

The night is wrapped in fleece

as snow falls, tender mild;

a peaceful pastoral postcard 

black and white, holy, bright. 

O wonder. Look

at the way they stop, stand, eyes wide

lifting their lowly heads, looking up 

seeing what we don’t see

knowing something more, impossible to ignore

something that insists they pay attention

something we miss, with our eyes closed shut.

the return

~ After Mary Oliver ~

When I went back to my window

none of it had gone away.

Trash receptacles still lined the street

on which Amazon trucks drop their deliveries

on front stoops in yards that mirror each other

with the same perfect grass 

under the sky steeping an earl gray tea

the hum of the highway

and an almost-rain.

Where is the sea with her salted waves, soft faced shells

countries of mockingbirds, swans and dunes

the book-eating pond with the pink-tongued goose?

Where is my song? Where is God all delicate?

I must learn to say grace

drink from the palm of my hand. 

The Epiphany of Threes: The Visit, the Miracle, the Baptism

~ After Robert Frost’s Acquainted With the Night ~ 

I have become acquainted with the night. 

Thoughts careen like bats in my mind, all wings.

In silent rooms, lonely days without light

I get lost, turned around with mundane things.

I look for stories written in the stars

I fear change, fear that I’m more, I’m nothing.

If I stay long enough I find my heart.

In simple, serendipitous visits

the ordinary turns to wine in jars.

These baptismal moments of sublime gift

reveal a divine manifestation.

The darkness lifts. I’m no longer adrift. 

Nothing changes, yet  I have come undone. 

There’s a theophany of three in One. 

Angela Hoffman’s poetry collections include Resurrection Lily (Kelsay Books, 2022) and Olly Olly Oxen Free (forthcoming, Kelsay Books, 2023). She placed third in the WFOP Kay Saunders Memorial Emerging Poet in 2022. She has written a poem a day since the start of the pandemic. Angela lives in rural Wisconsin.