This slender book contains the poetic telling of about 50 occasions
lived by the poet over a span of 8 years. Each poem puts into words
both an inner and an outer event, the outside and inside meeting,
interpenetrating, their duality explored; a transcendence perhaps
sought, fleetingly attained. We strive with the poet to comprehend,
to somehow embrace our existence in its ungraspable totality, with
all its complexity and contradictions. And if pain and the
inevitabilities that have the power to take us to the brink of
despair infuse many of the lines, it's because their ubiquitous
presence can't be avoided if we are fully alive and fully human. I
gradually found myself warming to the author's honesty, becoming
grateful to him for deeply honouring these realities, for not
providing answers to the unanswerable questions, understanding to
that which will not be fathomed. As for the more comforting
frequencies informing our lives, awe and wonder, appreciation,
courage, generosity: we stay open to them, acknowledge and welcome
them as we would a grace given; and attending to them we find that
we partake of the bittersweet awareness of beauty, of 'the simple,
hopeless love of being here'.
I found these verses to be brimming over with a humanity born of a
profound love for and empathy with creation / existence. The
imagery is vivid, direct, exquisitely sensitive but never
sentimentalized, unfurling implacably, challenging us to experience
nature-including our own, the human variety-more mindfully. These
lines may stay with you your lifetime long: explore their nooks and
crannies, turn over stones untouched for years, tune in to the
harmonies as, through its perceptions of the natural world, the
poetry sings our deepest selves back to us.
Do experience the poems directly, through your own psyche, not
reviewers': reading about a poem instead of reading the poem itself
is like trying to experience the wind by listening to a weather
report or hoping to appreciate a poplar bud by seeing it in a
guidebook. Find the verses for yourself. And take your time with
them: allow the words to circulate through you (and notice, next
day, how the molecules of your bodymind shake out). Do not hurry to
finish, to put yet another volume behind you, for, in the poet's
words, 'spirit expands to fill the time allotted'.
Postscript :
Especially poignant in these days of the ongoing oil disaster in
the Gulf is the poem titled 'Lo ', an interview, of sorts, with the
ocean. For me, the spill is assuming iconic proportions : like
Chornobyl, a sad symbol of humanity's relationship with the natural
world; an admonishment, a warning, a cry.