By John Brantingham
FROM: Cultural Weekly

Trumpets in the Sky by Jerry Garcia comes back again and again to the wonder of the world when you are focused on the sky. In the preface, he tells us that he has always been fascinated by “things in the sky” (12), which was also the early working title of this collection. It’s a strong metaphor because it seems to give the poet the perspective so that he sees himself, his life, and his problems as part of a greater whole.

Where some poets focus on their pain, he is able to see wonder is so many things, and part of what makes Trumpets in the Sky powerful is that he is able to focus on the magic of the world in the way that Kerouac, Snider, or Whitman were so often able to do. However, Garcia, whose dog is named Japhy, after Kerouac’s depiction of Snider in Dharma Bums, does not need to retreat to rural areas to find it. He is aware that nature is spectacular in the sky around him, and that awareness keeps him centered and grounded.

It is not as though Garcia’s narrator is oblivious to everyday frustrations and pains; it’s just that he has found a way to rise above them. The world can get to anyone, as he shows in “Espresso”:

Cell phone compounds aggravation
with ex-wife’s grumble.

Inside the carpark,
status is marked by location.
I disembark, my coffee
cold and bitter. (31)