Fitzpatrick's Between the Covers is a whimsical meditation on books, seasons, and the measured rhythms of life. This poem weaves the materiality of print typefaces and handmade covers. with the eternal cycles of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. At once playful and reverent, it suggests that stories are alive within us, shaping memory and meaning as faithfully as the crow at dawn or the owl at dusk.
I inhabit a fairy tale that’s broke
into four sections: a slim volume with a
hand-made sky cover and illustrations
reproduced by permission of God.
At start of calendar, peeping out, I see
who’s now alive and what they are about.
These souls who dress in people suits
are typeset in Monotype Scotch Roman
with Founder’s Caslon display. They’re woven
by fate. In faith I inhabit fairy tales,
four season’s display that’s full of quips and cranks,
of jokes; their song and dance that trips
through the weather, measured repetition
in spring, summer, autumn and winter,
through cock crows and owl hoots, in lines
demarcated: north, south, east and west.
Marie Lynam Fitzpatrick
FLM 2014