That Which I Am

By Nathaniel FitzGerald

Meditations on being, love, and faith by Nathaniel FitzGerald

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nathaniel FitzGerald
• Release date: Dec 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201172190

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Nathaniel FitzGerald

That Which I Am

(And Other Poems)

Copyright © 2021 by Nathaniel FitzGerald

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Nathaniel FitzGerald asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Nathaniel FitzGerald has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Signs

A Flash

A Hole

Four/Three

Untitled #7

Many Sparrows

Your Mother’s Kool-Aid

Of a Boiled Frog

Today’s Tomorrows

Thomas

Pinocchio

Yellow Streets & Emerald Towns

Song of the Two-Year Jonah

A Blanket

That Which I am

Of Pens and Pages

About the Author

Acknowledgements

These poems were written over a period of ten-ish years in various dorm rooms, classrooms, apartments, book stores, classrooms, and libraries, often while I was supposed to be doing something else. The one exception is Of a Boiled Frog, which was written in 2020 and first published in Life On Hold: Reflections in the Hourglass, a collection overseen by Janele Dill.

None of these ideas are mine, and are so derivative of the far greater work that I likely don’t need to clarify where I stole them from. However, these poems wouldn’t exist without the inspiration of T.S. Eliot, Bob Dylan, Aaron Weiss of mewithoutYou, Walt Whitman’s "Song of Myself," John Milton (who severely spoiled my idea of syntax), and the Judeo-Christian Bible.

Thank you to anyone who gave me any sort of feedback on these poems, one way or another, but especially my wife Michelle.

Signs

I used to believe in signs

that the universe would tip me off

to which direction I should go

or what might happen soon

I used to believe in straws

and their loosely looped wrappers

that, when pulled taut, would whisper

and tell what she would not

i used to believe in dreams

of a waterlogged landscape we walked

through on the waters until

we’d fall through, but not drown

I used to believe in