Mark Rudman

Sam uses the words ‘pretend’ and ‘fake’ to distinguish representations from real things. Since all movie ratings are specious, conflating the slangy use of curse words, sickening violence, and kinky sex, I risked taking him to whatever films I thought would stimulate his imagination. When I asked if he was scared, he’d answer in a bold and firm voice: ‘No,...

It’s hard to get anywhere in Utah without going through Provo. I can’t tell you the number of times I went there as a teenager, the number Of times I drove into town in the early Afternoon, hungry, and had to look around For a place to eat. You don’t have to starve In Provo but you eat at your own risk. At no risk. I would never have gone to Provo On my own. I went...

Michael Hofmann’s poetry is a lament for a lost world. Some years ago, in an article on Frank O’Hara, he talked about New York no longer being the thrilling place it had been in the days when O’Hara and the gang could go downtown to the Blue Note and hear John Coltrane or uptown to hear Billie Holiday. This kind of nostalgia can be tiresome: better for each generation to invent a new idea of the new – to enlarge the temple. In his poems, Hofmann has found a way to do this. In each, no matter how short, one feels the pull of three places – Germany, England and America – and two languages.’

The public bus into Santo Domingo, sheer Delight, rocking chaos of stops and starts, And a Dominican woman, thin, potentially Attractive, sits on an impromptu jump seat Facing the passengers, her expression at first Impassive, sombre, carved as she moves her fingers Across her forehead to wipe away her burdens, And responds to a remark we can’t hear with a brief broad smile, Which takes...

For Sam

And courage, courage is what is called for to explore the outskirts of the city, where the disinherited abide, and trouble is a form of entertainment, as are bruises and broken glass, in regions so remote from the centre they’ve shed their street names; few know; fewer care; I found out because I copped a ride in the back of the van at 2 a.m. when the crew was setting out to...