Jay Hopler was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1970 and has earned degrees from New York University, The Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and Purdue University. His poetry, essays, and translations have appeared in numerous magazines and journals including The American Poetry Review, The Believer, The Nation, The New Republic, and The New Yorker and he was the recipient of honors such as The Yale Series of Younger Poets Award (for Green Squall), a Whiting Writers Award, and the Rome Prize in Literature.
In 2016, his second book of poems, The Abridged History of Rainfall, was a finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry. His second book of poems, Still Life, was published by McSweeney’s in 2022, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Other publications include two anthologies (The Killing Spirit: A Book of Contractual Murder and, with Kimberly Johnson, Before the Door of God: An Anthology of Devotional Poetry) and collection of German translations (The Museum of Small Dark Things: 25 Poems of Georg Trakl).
Though he resided in Salt Lake City’s Sugarhouse neighborhood, he directed the Creative Writing Program for the University of South Florida. He was married to poet and Renaissance scholar Kimberly Johnson. Jay Hopler died June 15, 2022.
Work
Radiation Vault 4
Radiation Vault 4
O, let there be in here w/ me a moth
Whose DNA w/ mine will mix
When they flip the switch
& the room goes nuclear
That I may some days later sprout
A pair of wings that’ll wing
Their sun-struck span
In a sky-wide, oil-slick rainbow.
& may the skull upon its thorax
Be the skull upon my back,
That Heaven may upon
That aspect cast its homicidal eye
When I flutter its porchlight, the sun,
& think the work already done.
“Radiation Vault 4,” originally appeared in American Poetry Review.
Meditation on My Cancer
Meditation on My Cancer
The toilets in the Bennett L.
& Rose Wood Park men’s room
Are metal & ring like bells
When you piss in them.
Ring like rang no bell
On the day I was born.
Ring like no bell will
On the day I die.
Over the soccer fields roll
The shadows of clouds.
In the piss-tolled bowl,
A little billow of blood.
“Meditation on My Cancer” originally appeared in American Poetry Review.
Parade
Parade
In the foil-flash & rattle of wind-spun
Pinwheels, a marching band
To its tuba tunes & the bunting hung
From the porch rails rustles. A bird,
A bunting or something, rustles
In the rain lilies & a hearse
On loan from Bethlehem
& Sons Funeral Home, pulls a float
Trimmed w/ zinnias, prim-
Roses, & mums. Wave, wave,
You rainy lilies! You mist-slick lindens,
Lift your dripping limbs & wave!
Though it’s the wind, its blah
Paroxysms, not patriotism,
That moves you, not the mob, its straw-
Hat hoopla. A Sousa blast, flat-
Brassed & blatted, startles from the lilies
Not a bunting but a rat. A wet rat.
July 4, 2017
“Parade” originally appeared in American Poetry Review.
Duck & Groundcover
Duck & Groundcover
Meadows petaled turquoise.
They shiver like glacial lakes
Even when the sun shines.
A duck could be forgiven,
Then, the lack of grace
In a dry landing. The ooofff!
We each to Heaven send
At every bounce, a plea:
How about a little mercy,
For ducks’ sake? What the duck
Must think the moment the lake
Reveals itself a field of blue
Flowers & a few sharp stones—.
O God, where did I go wrong—
“Duck & Groundcover” originally appeared in The Nation.
Bibliography
Still Life, San Francisco: McSweeney’s Poetry Series, 2022.
The Museum of Small Dark Things: 25 Poems by Georg Trakl. Selected and Translated from the German. San Diego: Poetry International, 22/23, San Diego State University, 2017.
The Abridged History of Rainfall. San Francisco: McSweeney’s Poetry Series, 2016.
Before the Door of God: An Anthology of Devotional Poetry. Edited with Kimberly Johnson. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.
Green Squall. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
The Killing Spirit: An Anthology of Murder-for-Hire [American Edition]. Edited with an introduction. New York: Overlook Press, 1996. Overlook Press published the American paperback edition in May 1998.
