O:JA&L Poetry: All forms & styles

Sharon Hoffmann

GODARD: A PASTICHE

Hollywood Apparatus by O:JA&L staff creative

My first film
was a narrative gangster story.
I thought I’d done
the son of Scarface.

I discovered the
Marxist-Leninist
Alice- in-Wonderland.
I had to find the cinema
which had escaped me.

In Les Chinois,
there is a merging
of their documentaries
with my fictions.

It is a new cultural alphabet
in primary colors.
It is an alphabet only.
Complicated things
lurk in vocabulary.

I must restudy my trade
from zero.

 

About the writer:
Sharon Hoffmann is a writer based in Atlantic Beach, Florida. Publications include The Hooghly Review, New York Quarterly, Beloit Poetry Journal, Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives (Harvard University Press), Paddler Press, South Florida Poetry Journal, Letters, Wild Roof, Sho, and other magazines. Awards include fellowships from Atlantic Center for the Arts and Florida’s Division of Cultural Affairs, two Pushcart nominations and a nomination for Best Spiritual Literature.

Image: Hollywood Apparatus (AI-assisted digital image) by O:JA&L staff creative. 2025. Public domain via MidJourney AI.

OJAL Art Incorporated, publishing since 2017 as OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L) and its imprints Buttonhook Press, HOT BUTTON PRESS Contemporary Issues, and HIGH BUTTON PRESS Contemporary Art, supports writers and artists worldwide.

O:JA&L’S BUTTONHOOK PRESS MASTERS SERIES

Click on the titles below to explore or download the free PDF chapbooks in the O:JA&L Masters Series.

The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Brian Clements on Prose Poetry
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto

The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Mark Budman on Flash Discourse
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto

The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Ray Gonzalez on Prose Poetry
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto

The Buttonhook Press Master Series: Michael Martone on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto

The Buttonhook Press Master Series: Roberta Allen on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto

The Buttonhook Press Master Series: Peter Conners on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto

The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Maxine Chernoff on Prose Poetry
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto

The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Pedro Ponce on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto

The Buttonhook Press Masters Series:  Tom Hazuka on Flash Fiction
With an interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto

The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Kent Dixon on Flash Fiction & Nonfiction
With an interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto

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