Crystal J. Hoffman’s Comments

These four poems are part of a series inspired by Surrealist methods of composition and artistic theories of creation and audience/creator conflict and engagement. The three Surrealists whose poetry (and other creative works) have influenced these poems most particularly are André Breton, Max Ernst, and Benjamin Péret.

I wrote “Because it’s October, and Rivers Don’t Freeze” and “Aubade” as part of a series of Surrealist Love Poems. “Hey you lookin’? The crackhead on Liberty and Taylor” is a Surrealist Grunge Poem. “With my own eyes, I saw the Sibyl hanging in a cage” is a Surrealist Fairy Tale.

The general style and content of the first three of these poems are not pure Surrealism—too many narrative and logical sequences permeate them to merit that label. However, their use of conflictive images and symbolism, dream-time structural movement, and their methods of creation reflect the influence of the poetry mentioned above.

I aim for honest, yet tense and slightly difficult interaction with my reader or listener—these poems, I believe, gain a lot in performance. I write from dream and personal experience, as I feel that the poet’s intense engagement with lived (one can live through dreams) words is necessary to write a poem that the reader or listener can swim inside of. This is the ultimate goal of my poetry.

Return to Archive