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weatherman
by Dan Fitzgerald
47 Poems ~ 59 pages
Price: $20.00
Publisher: Kelsay Books
ISBN #:97816339804627
To Order: Amazon.com or KelsayBooks.com
Reviewed by Michael Escoubas
Weatherman, by Dan Fitzgerald, is a collection mindful of poets such as Wallace Stevens, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and a host of others who possessed an uncanny ability to draw on the natural world as a life-metaphor. With a similar affinity, it is as if Fitzgerald dwells within a deeply personal, even redemptive relationship with the world. The title poem sets the tone:
The street is wet
from a quick, sudden shower.
I must be careful
if I am to walk the pavement.
Cars do not care, their tires
hurriedly hissing through the puddles.
But I am not a machine
with artificial limbs.
I am fragile, unsteady, traveling
on my own two legs
and I must find balance
in a world that can change
with every passing cloud.
This gem of an opener reveals the poet’s fragile relationship with his subject: the world and life. “Cars uncaring … hurriedly hissing through puddles,” pose an intellectual and spiritual threat to one who is not a machine, “with artificial limbs.” He is a man who tasks himself with finding balance in a world subject to change. Along with the poet, I, too, find myself seeking perspectives that make life worth living.
By way of style, Fitzgerald is a mature free verse poet. His poems are straightforward, delivered without pretense. They feature excellent endline decisions and rhythms that flow easily from one poem to the next.
If I could isolate just one skill (hard to do!) that stands out in Fitzgerald’s work, that skill would be “Personification.” To personify is to apply human features to nonhuman objects. “I Hear the Rain Singing” stands out as a case in point:
I hear the rain singing
the voices of ages, yearning
to live once more in the sea.
Mountains have stopped it,
vast plains have slowed its way.
It has rested in lakes and ponds,
followed rivers and streams
only to have wind and clouds
capture it once more.
When the rain falls near me,
I can hear the melodies of travel,
smell the scent of varied skies.
I can feel the quiet, the violence,
the weariness, the eagerness
of the clouds releasing
those songs of years,
of water wanting the sea.
I have underscored several verbs and gerunds which typify human actions the poet assigns to the rain, mountains, and clouds. I could easily have chosen “any” poem to achieve the same end. This is advanced stuff! An English teacher could well use Fitzgerald’s work in an advanced poetry course.
“Still,” captures the landscape amid raindrops, wind, and trees that breathe. Lightning flashes augment the stillness of a moment in time. In “You Next to Me,” the poet awakens refreshed in the filtered light of a new day. “Water to Us,” offers a respite in nature, away from the city with all its “hurrying noises.” This poet speaks to me.
In “Shapes of Wind,” the very clouds convey a life-message. Don’t overlook this one. Can you imagine snowflakes in summer? Read “Cottonwood Seed.” “A Matter After All,” is a study in contrasts between light and darkness–Fitzgerald knows that nature mirrors life.
What impresses me the most is Fitzgerald’s austere life-perspective. While many poems contribute to this end, “A Little Bit of Sky,” brings it all home:
Just a little bit of sky is all I need,
to watch a cloud float along,
to see a bird soar, to feel
the sun shine on my piece of ground.
And if the sky stays,
I will plant a little garden,
get a cat, raise some chickens.
It will be enough, that
little bit of sky,
to give me a chance for a home.
Throw away your self-help books, toss your vitamin supplements into the trashcan. You don’t need them! Instead let Dan Fitzgerald’s weatherman nourish your heart through the rich spiritual benefits available from poetry and Nature.
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