Posted on by Corneigh Hoff

Rock my boat, a blues song

Rock my boat, a blues song (1980)

Your image like a phantom lingers
ever since you left my sight;
A cold despair now locks my fingers,
ah! stalking spectre, stifling night.

I imagine your scream, your silent shuffle,
your mild existence, faint and feeble being,
Your voice, by nature dim and muffled;
You meet my reaching hand by bashful fleeing.

You ask me do I love you, I ask you can I choose?
Such feelings cause me pain, a choking noose
I beg for my release, this agony to end
Please don’t rock my boat again.

How did life become so ruffled?

You ask me do I love you, I ask you can I choose?
Such feelings cause me pain, a choking noose
I sail towards this haven, a sanctuary shore
So please don’t rock my boat no more.

Posted on by Corneigh Hoff

Haiku: bunny in the bush

Haiku: bunny in the bush (2023)

bunny in the bush
sounds from a granddaughter’s voice
radiant and bright

(This one calls for a bit of explanation: my granddaughter of 2 and her raggedy bunny doll are inseparable. One day she almost lost it because it got stuck in a bush. All the way back home she sang her own made up song: bunny in the bush)

Posted on by Corneigh Hoff · 2 Comments

A sonnet for Alan Kurdi

A Sonnet for Alan Kurdi (2018)

one day you wrote your name upon the strand
a while there was the imprint of your face
little sneakers denting the brackish sand
the sea touching your brow, a diadem of lace

the sweetest boy that ever reached the shore
so beautiful, so wonderful, so dead
you were alive, full-coloured, hours before
the wind roughly and softly made your bed

I swore, we swore, never to forget
Alan, you’ll be the difference, yes, you will
we loved so deep, the moment that we met
then we ùnmet, as you lay there, so still

and came the waves and washed you away
and came the waves and washed you away

Inspired by Edmund Spenser (~1552-1599)