River

Sheila Martindale is poetry editor of Canadian Author and Bookman and
the author of No Greater Love.

This long, rambling poem, in which the Detroit River serves as a
metaphor for life, is not easy to read or define. Fitzgerald attempts to
explain the poem’s rationale in an author’s note, but her prose is
as incomprehensible as her poetry, so the reader is no further ahead.
River does have its moments. There are many very clever wordplays and
humorous lines, and no doubt someone on the poet’s wavelength would
enjoy going on this torturous ride. The rest of us might consider
revisiting Wordsworth and Keats.