A Glint of Light by Fredric Hildebrand

“In [these} whisper moment[s],” Hildebrand brings readers poems of gentle clarity, uwords that are rich with intimate detail. Though fall and winter days and nights can be dark, Hildebrand offers color and sound—owl’s screech, flash of blackbird’s wings. Spring arrives with its trails of geese and a yellow dog. Nothing gets past this writer’s keen ears and eyes. These luminous poems glow like small blessings”.

–Karla Huston, Wisconsin Poet Laureate 2017—2018,  Author of Grief Bone and The Theory of Lipstick.

“Like the Chinese masters before him, Hildebrand allows the things of this world to speak for themselves in his collection of poems, A Glint of Light. I’m sure Hank Williams really was singing “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” that late night in the lonesome diner. It could not be otherwise. The world is how it is and that is how Hildebrand reports it, and that is enough: “in this whisper moment / everything beautiful around me.” Everywhere there are blessings, and there is gratitude for them. Reading Hildebrand, one wants to love this world, these poems.”

–Tom Montag, Poet, essayist, and blogger. Author of Seventy at Seventy, The Big Book of Ben Zen, In This Place: Selected Poems 1982-2013; co-editor (with David Graham) of Local News: Poetry About Small Towns.

“Fredric Hildebrand’s stunning collection consists of carefully crafted, small poems that convey a  profound awareness of both loss and grace. The collection opens with poems about decay, where a “somber darkness / hangs on.” But despair is never the last word. Instead, “a curve of light atones for / the grim day.” A quiet, keenly observant narrator moves among the seasons, sharing what he senses: warbler chirps, wolf tracks, a rusted pickup. Each poem is true to the Wisconsin setting it describes; each evokes something greater than the scene itself: joy, pride, blessing. Deeply spiritual and engaging, these poems sing with gratitude for life and its mercies. Read A Glint of Light and you, too, will be refreshed.”

–Peggy Turnbull,   poet and blogger. Author of The Joy of Their Holiness.