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  • Issue 24
  • Volition by Roald Hoffmann

Published by Associate Editor on November 8, 2014. This item is listed in Issue 24, Issue 24 Featured Poet, Issue 24 Poetry, Poetry

Volition by Roald Hoffmann

Volition by Roald Hoffmann

Illustration by Sue Babcock

A gold coin centers this landscape.
It is drawn standing on edge,
so that we can see the ridges and a hint of the design,
which seems to be the Russian imperial eagle.
The coin is teetering,
and this is shown in comic book notation,
with some short curved lines.
The coin would fall
(and it is not clear to which side)
were it not for two dark arrows
contending
to push it over,
one from each side.
The arrows are each impelled by intricate machinery -
gears, cams, even engines and boilers.
This machinery is controlled
(we see two trailing wires)
by a man below
pushing buttons on a panel, and it is clear
that he directs both arrows.
At this point we notice that the floor around the engineer
is littered by loose letters in various fonts.
The composition is quite symmetrical:
to the left of the man is a fence, a big wave
about to break into it.
A dragon is partway over.
Some small figures are hurrying about
trying to unroll a hose against the dragon,
others are trying to pull out some bayonets
that have penetrated the fence.
Some of the figures gesture at the man at the control panel,
who should be giving them orders.
But he doesn't look at them,
not at the panel (though his fingers are on it). Instead
he looks to his right
at a sitting woman in a red and black dirndl.
She faces away,
painting what seems to be a landscape with two roads.

 

Roald Hoffmann was born in 1937 in Złoczów, then Poland. He came to the US in 1949, and has long been at Cornell University in the USA, active as a theoretical chemist. In chemistry, he has taught generations how to think about molecular orbitals.

Hoffmann is also a writer, carving out his own land between poetry, philosophy, and science. He has published five books of non-fiction, written three produced plays, and six volumes of poetry, including two book length selections of his poems in Spanish and Russian translations.

Tags: Poetry, Roald Hoffmann

Comments (1)

  • Introduction to Poetry in Issue 24 by John C. Mannone | Silver Blade Magazine

    January 7, 2015 at 8:20 am | #

    […] (1981), who is also impassioned with the arts. His poems (“A Different Kind of Motion,” “Volition,” and “Crossing the Mekong”) bring a chemistry of their own. He speaks of their genesis in […]

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