On a Day Like This,
by Jan FitzGerald, Steele Roberts, $19.99
In this, her second book, Jan FitzGerald has provided a selection of poems that should appeal to a wide readership.
FitzGerald, a long-time Tauranga resident, moved to Napier with her partner, fellow poet Leonard Lambert, about three years ago.
Her first collection,
Flying Against the Arrow, was published in 2005 and some poems - including the eponymous one - are repeated here, presumably because now that she has been taken on by another publishing house, FitzGerald expects to reach a wider audience.
She calls on her former work as a caregiver for the elderly, as well as her Nga Puhi heritage, to address the big topics - love, ageing and death - in these 56 poems. Many of them are about landscape - external and internal, past and present.
FitzGerald identifies with birds, so her plea in When I die is not surprising: make me a nest/a hay-bed/in a seaward tree.
Talking Tui harks back to tohunga who taught captive birds to talk. It may have benefited from a prose introduction for the uninitiated.
FitzGerald has also provided two of her stylised bird drawings for the covers of the book.
The search for a telling image occasionally leads her astray (the sepulchre of the Sunday papers) but FitzGerald is a craftswoman and there are poems aplenty that show her skill and deserve to be known not only by lovers of poetry but also by those who enjoy words that speak of the "ordinary" men and women who contribute so much to our individual lives.
A minute ago will be understood by anyone who has wondered at the speed with which years pass, while Ways of going and The woodwork teacher, although addressing her own father, will resonate with many.
It will be interesting to see what she does next.
