Remembering Phil Fitzpatrick, A Tribute

The world lost a very special human being this weekend. A man with many facets to his life, I got to know Phil through his involvement with Duluth Dylan Fest (DDF). A few years earlier he won the poetry competition at Hibbing's Dylan Days celebration. 

In addition to his career in teaching (Marshall School in Duluth, Mesabi Range College in Virginia), he was a lifelong poet, Dylan fan and author of A Beautiful Friendship: The Joy of Chasing Bogey Golf. and more recently a book of poems called Hawks On High. He's also been a volunteer on the Duluth Dylan Fest Committee this past few years, which is how I came to know him. Modest, considerate, intelligent and a very fine poet, he's a man of considerable accomplishments in his own right. His passion for literature impressed everyone who knew him.

Here are some blog posts I've written about Phil. The first is my overview of a talk Phil gave about Dylan in 2016. The second discusses the 2013 poetry event at DDF.  When Phil performed his Jeremiad in 2017, he showed not only his literary mastery but his skill as an orator as well. The last two links take you to his last completed project inspired by his activities on Hawk Ridge. 

Phil Fitzpatrick's Dylan Hour (Plus Fitz's Fave Fives)

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2016/09/phil-fitzpatricks-dylan-hour-plus-fitzs.html 

Poets Gather To Celebrate The Bard During North Country Dylan Week

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2013/05/poets-gather-to-celebrate-bard-during.html

Jeremiad: A Triptych, by Phil Fitzpatrick and a Heads Up About Wednesday's Dylan Fest Poetry Event
https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2017/05/jeremiad-triptych-by-phil-fitzpatrick.html

Phil Fitzpatrick Talks About His New Book of Poems, Hawks on High: Everyday Miracles in a Hawk Ridge Season
https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2019/09/phill-fitzpatrick-talks-about-his-new.html

Spirits Lifted at the Hawks On High Book Launch
https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2019/09/spirits-lifted-at-hawks-on-high-book.html

I'm grateful for the hours we spent together over the years. I'm certain that the friends from all his various chapters of his life feel the same gratitude. He is no doubt soaring with the raptors now.

Hawk Ridge Hawk Watchers: Science + Entertainment for Children of All Ages, 1 to 100

Birds and bird watchers intersect on a hilltop.
It's an endless sequence of autumn flyovers.
Ravens
Broadies
Osprey
Sharpies
Kestrels
Golden Eagles
Bald Eagles
Hawks of every stripe.
"Cranes," he declares. "31 streaming thru that cloud that looks like a hand."
"I got 34," she replies.

* * * *

It's been too long since I'd been to Hawk Ridge here on Duluth's Skyline Drive. After the Phil Fitzpatrick/Penny Perry book launch a couple weeks back, I decided I'd better rectify this neglect. With an opening in my schedule and a semi-sunny day, I made a decision to make my way to Hawk Ridge.

Birds have been a fascination for generations, for centuries. Leonardo DaVinci studied them, seeking to understand the nature of flight. In college I did some paintings of birds, and loved trying to capture the feeling of birds in flight.

Pro sports teams feature quite a number of bird mascots. Cardinals, Falcons, Eagles, Ravens--we saw a raven today--Seahawks, Orioles, Blue Jays, Angels. (OK, angels have wings, but are probably not birds.)

I like to say Hawk Ridge is for the birds, but it's really for the birders. The birds are just doing their thing, the way they've always done, migrating south for the winter, returning in the spring. It's people who discovered the routes these creatures choose and in recent years strive to document their patterns.

In ancient times birds were omens. Today they really are an oracle of sorts, helping reveal the health of our environment.

My opening notes at the top of this post were from yesterday afternoon. It was fun to see the cranes come into view through the cloud, which brought to mind the poem from Phil Fitzpatrick's Hawks On High, titled Flying Ichabods, a clever word play off Washington Irvings's central character in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Flying Ichabods
One day I heard the flying Ichabods
Better known as Sandhill Cranes
Long necks in front and longer legs behind
Squawking their way to midwestern plains

You can read the full poem in Phil's book, Hawks On High, available locally at Zenith Books and Hawk Ridge.

Here's my own poetic verse in response to a moment in which a young harrier flew by, shimmering in the sun. I asked how they knew it was a harrier youth.

The Harrier Family
Cinnamon on breast, juveniles.
Adult females, brown.
Silvery white underneath, black tips,
that's a dad.

Grey hair, looking skyward,
squinting through binoculars.
That's me.

* * * *
I'm told there are hundreds of such sites around the country where birders gather, keep tabs on migration activities and bird counts. Even if you know nothing, they make you feel welcome. And if you're here in the Twin Ports, Hawk Ridge is a gift you ought to get to know.

FWIW DEPT.
While vacationing in the Black Hills I used my AAA travel book to locate the most scenic of its scenic hiaghways. AAA ranks all the highways in the country with a 1, 2, 3 etc. according to its degree of wonder. Among the list of #1 top highways and byways was our Skyline Drive here in Duluth. Dig it.

Spirits Lifted at the Hawks On High Book Launch

Phil Fitzpatrick shared stories, poems and enthusiasm..

The weather couldn't have been worse, but it didn't really matter. Everywhere I looked spirits were soaring at Phil Fitzpatrick and Penny Perry's book launch for Hawks On High: Everyday Miracles in a Hawk Ridge Season.

A hard rain was falling, and to make matters worse, it was so windy that to use an umbrella was nigh impossible. Add to that the Superior Street construction that made it difficult to figure out how to cross the depression and near muck. As noted, spirits were not dampened, and the musical accompaniment was just what the doctors ordered. Pianist Ryan Frane produced his magic during the first hour of socializing, and Woodblind (Veikko and Jason) lifted hearts in the latter portion. In between, Phil Fitzpatrick thanked oodles of people, told the story of how this project came to be and read several of his poems.

Hawk Ridge director Janelle Long made a few remarks early on, thanking Phil for this book of poems as a tribute to the work there. Janelle said that Phil has been going daily to Hawk Ridge last fall and this fall. Sometimes he even brings pizza for staff.

Hawk Eye by Penny Perry

Penny Perry was Phil's collaborator on this project. If able, you will want to stop in at the Zeitgeist Atrium to see her illustrations and paintings. Phil said her drawings "appeared like magic out of thin air."

Penny said that the biggest challenge was producing illustrations that would coordinate with the shape of the poems. Duluth Poets-Laureate Ellie Schoenfeld and Deb Cooper were the ones who suggested to Phil that he ask her. "Poetry, ink drawings, birds. Oh yeah, that's my wheelhouse." Anyone who has followed Penny Perry's career knows this is so.

For Penny, accuracy was an important part of these drawings. As for all the people who paint and write and make music, she thanks them as well. "You all show up and I appreciate it."

* * * *

And a feather.

Phil then proceeded to read to a packed out room. Having watched Phil perform numerous times over the years, I always come away impressed with his ability to command the room. Phil and Penny's goal was to make Hawk Ridge come alive in all the book's readers. For sure this event will undoubtedly prompt more people from the community to visit this resource again soon.

There's a sense in which the poetry reading reminded me of an artist's talk as he told stories leading into many of the poems, their inspiration or important background information.

The first poem he read was "Peregrine Over Hawk Ridge," which opens the section Dramatis Personae and appears on page 47. It begins:

trackless tracer
record holder
soundless
black bullet-bird
cloud piercer

Now you got me, Phil. I want to see one of these.

We even had a hawk present.

Phil described how some of the poems emerged "from something that blew me completely away." Forget the Binos! was one of these.

"Oh, my God! Dude, look! Up there! And forget the binos!"
you hear yourself say as the wingbeat dream begins; just
lean back: you're under a tsunami of striped boomerangs

You can read the rest of this one from page 77.

People who enjoy poetry get jazzed when poets paint images with phrases and word combinations that create an almost electrical charge in your brain synapses. I would compare it to memorable lines in favorite films, or those unforgettable scenes. A film without memorable lines and scene is 'just a movie." Phil's poems are seasoned with ample quantities of lively imagery.

One of my favorite pastimes as a creative is naming paintings, drawings, poems and stories, and I can tell Phil has taken an equal measure of pleasure titling his poems. Here's a smattering of examples.
Rhetorical Question
Kettle
Peregrine Cam
But Who's Counting
Whiteness, For Instance
The Season's Last Bald
Kaitlyn's Wow
Double Gos Tease
Parallax

In fact, any page you open to will give you morsels to chew slowly and savor.

Souvenirs help support Hawk Ridge research.

* * * *

Peregrine Falcon, Penny Perry

I recently read a bio of Paul McCartney with a really insightful anecdote about the early days of McCartney and Lennon writing songs together. Each day they would come up with several new tunes and songs, but they didn't write them down. They believed that if something they came up with was destined to be memorable, they would remember it the next day. In this manner they separated the wheat from the chaff.

Phil shared this notion in a similar vein. "The good ideas stay, the everyday miracles."

Tip of the hat to Mike Savage of Savage Press for his assistance in bringing all these pieces together.

Phil & Penny's book can be purchased at Hawk Ridge, at Zenith Bookstore, as well as directly from the author and the artist.

Penny Perry illustrations have been scanned by CPL Imaging. To learn more about the services of CPL Imaging visit cplimaging.com

Related Links
Interview with Phil
Interview with Penny Perry
The Name Game
Savage Press