Northern Portrait
About
Fredric Hildebrand can paint this “northern portrait” because he has a careful eye looking over the “summer farms and fields” and the “pine-thick forests.” He can see the “intersection of gray abandonment” and the sign at the abandoned tavern, which still speaks “the old language.” He remembers the hundred years in his grandmother’s eyes “like / the light of an uncertain candle.” More, Hildebrand knows what he sees means, that when you see the blackbird, it is about “not exactly the bird / but the cleansing / rains and green maple / days that followed her.” It is in such an understanding that these poems live.
Tom Montag
Praise for this book
Hildebrand’s poems are a joyous journey through small-town Wisconsin with an homage to drive-in theaters, pinewood derbies, and Saturday night baseball. With the deftness of a poet, this author takes readers “there” with intimate detail and his sure sense of belonging. There is a softness in these poems, a feeling that passing time hovers just around the corner.