Poet Jeremy Long channels the spirit of Long Island sound and the depths of the human soul in the poetry collection, FAIR NOW, LATER RAIN. As the title suggests, FAIR NOW, LATER RAIN is a weather report for the soul. It’s calm now, but there are always dark clouds on the horizon. But Long also suggests that once the storm passes, there is sunshine and healing, the hope of reuniting.
Some of the poems in this book sound like standup comedian Steven Wright’s dry observations. “Oak,” for example is a simple one liner, loaded with context about choice, destiny, and forces beyond our control.
“An acorn that falls is halfway to completing its task.”
Long doesn’t shy away from rhyme — or ending a poem with a strong couplet. Pieces like “Fallen Leaf” sound like a gangster rapper more obsessed with existential angst than material possessions or sexual conquests. “Five More Miles” could pass for Woody Guthrie lyrics, a weathered cowboy pining for a lost love. Religious themes and images of autumn permeate this collection. Long dives deep in longer pieces like “Shoestring Blues,” “Gold,” and “Crumble, I’m a Mountain,” where he explores themes of death, decay, and rebirth. Loss is a recurrent theme; the spark of life stolen by death. Sorrow, grief and heartache march through the pages of FAIR NOW, LATER RAIN like dutiful soldiers. “This is the Tenth” — about the death of a longtime love — sums up many of the collection’s themes of sorrow and memory, the embers that remain when love is extinguished. Every loss contains a seed of hope, Long suggests in “Common Lilies.”
“Hope is a flower born/
of what once was there.”
There’s a sense of restlessness in FAIR NOW, LATER RAIN, a disquieted soul haunting the earth in search of meaning . Or a lost love. Long suggests that perhaps love is what infuses the mundane moments of life with meaning. He’s not wrong.
Jeremy Long’s elegant verse captures the many phases of grief and the hope of renewal in FAIR NOW, LATER RAIN, a moving collection of poems about life after death.
~Rob Errera for IndieReader