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Fishing for Intellectual Meteors
Poems by jacob erin-cilberto
37 Poems ~ 51 pages
Price: $15.00
Publisher: Praying Mantis Press
ISBN #: 9798329040807
To Order: Amazon.com
Reviewed by Michael Escoubas
I was a newspaper carrier in my youth, first job. During certain times of the year, as I walked my morning route, an atmospheric phenomenon stopped me cold. With the sky still dark and crowded with stars, glittering like diamonds, my eyes were treated to what I thought were “shooting stars.” I later learned that the correct term is “meteor.”
Lasting less than an eye-blink, they filled me with wonder. I imagined the hot rocks crash-landing in fields, leaving big holes, and folks gathered round wondering about a possible alien invasion!
My purpose in this review is to explore the impact Fishing for Intellectual Meteors has had on the atmospheric condition of my mind.
Jacob erin-cilberto leads his 24th collection with “a Father in Twilight,” a poem about the abyss of Alzheimer’s disease:
we met somewhere between
rustic humor
and caustic dementia
in his sleep he remembered me clearly
awake I was a strange acquaintance
on the overpass
just outside the town of lucid population
his clouded eyes
searched
The poem continues poignantly touching on the longing of two men to connect, each now outside the other’s reach. I was pierced by this poem because my own dear brother is in stage four of this cruel disease.
Among the numerous purposes of writing poetry is catharsis. I taste the poet’s “tears of salt” in the miniature “for Melanie Safka with love”:
tears for the ocean’s bride
as new rivers of sorrow
circumnavigate the dry shallows
remembering her voice
like the perfect sacrament
swirling echoes
like they were born to kiss
the ear
with song.
Speaking of poetry and its array of expressions, I delight in erin-cilberto’s frolic with poetic devices in “revision’s vision’s vacated”:
rogue writer writes, wrangles
wrests words wily
willingly wastes no time
traveling back over and over
to those same wily wrested words
once owned for the few seconds
of second looks longingly laid
to rest wrested words wrangled
willingly
will once written remain
untouched rogues like
the vagabond poet who posted them.
As I worked my way through the collection, I asked myself, what is the poet fishing for? The title affirms that the quarry is Intellectual Meteors. I offer the collection's title poem:
riffraff scatters
like night crawlers
from a flashlight
beam
poetic thoughts
deemed doable
as bait
to attract readers
gone underground
into hiding
creation reversed
light extinguished
the poet closes his eyes.
As a poet myself, I can relate to the sometimes-frustrating experience in which my “creative powers” behave like nightcrawlers, disappearing just as I reach down to grasp one of those slippery fellows to use as bait on my next fishing trip! In a poem about the creative process itself, erin-cilberto has framed my life.
Poets let’s be honest: erin-cilberto’s world is the world in which we live. Other titles which develop this theme include, “after many rewrites of self,” “artist in a corner,” “Clark Kent on the Keyboard,” “Blank Verse,” and Emily D. staring out her picture window.” I counted approximately twenty excellent poems about poetry, all of which add flesh to the bones of this important theme.
Jacob erin-cilberto’s work features depth of insight into the human condition. His wisdom is not delivered from a pulpit of condescension, rather, his poetry emerges from the crucible of life experience. “Sand in my synonyms,” touches upon the wisdom of a poet who continues to live out his commitment to art:
dead poems
the stillness of simile
is much like a quiet harbor
lacking metaphors
tied to the dock
by the entrance of a tide
under which
dead poems
find rest from revision
at last.
Friends, Fishing for Intellectual Meteors is a catch this angler is proud to display in his trophy case.
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