Michael Hofmeister

Our Earthly Rhythms Michael Hofmeister

Our Earthly Rhythms is a volume of poetry that explores the four seasons of nature and life both physically, emotionally and metaphorically. Like U before it, Our Earthly Rhythms is comparable to a musical theme album in that it is meant to be read straight through in one sitting. The story begins in the fall with "A Civilization of Fire", a shape poem which sounds like the fire it's describing when read aloud, and ends in the summer with "Our Earthly Rhythms" a short-but-sweet conclusion that may leave the reader with the impression that the story is ever and ongoing. Written over the course of an eleven year period, each poem has it's own unique voice, style, rhythm and subject matter. It's main theme appears to be an acknowledgement of an infinite passage of time which courses through the book as though it were as commonplace to talk about as the weather. In "Emergence", the author states that "The repeating four seasons of life take root in a short spring of becoming and are succeeded by an emergence into a world of contrasting qualities of dark and light" and concludes that "The sun is close but will move away again the season's will repeat again and again everything will change and return and change and return again and again..."