Birdsong More and More is another handsomely-crafted
limited edition volume published by Swamp Press, the first
in a Haiku Masters Mini Series produced in collaboration
with editor Vince Tripi. Most haiku poets are familiar with
L.A. Davidson as a charter member and staunch supporter
of the Haiku Society of America and the creator of the frequently-anthologized
haiku beyond/stars beyond/star. To those of
us privileged to know L.A. in person, shes the quiet
voice of reason, care, and grace at Northeast-Metro Regional
meetings and a delightful correspondent who sends newsy
notes and poems from her frequent journeys to California
and Jamaica. Tripi, however, sees her in yet another light,
as he writes in his author note: L.A. Davidson, in
Buddhist terminology, would be described as Bodhichitta
a noble or awakened heart. The books
design can be seen as a metaphor for the readers journey
into the world of Davidsons haiku: a series of square
windows opening onto Kuliks black-and-white engraving.
There is a spare and slightly ominous quality to the print:
the large tree that dominates the left foreground is bare,
possibly dead or dying, with just a few leaves on a lower
limb; the mountains are empty; and storm clouds fill the
sky. Yet rays of sun radiate from under the clouds and illuminate
a river running between the mountains and distant hills.
Together the twelve haiku, spaciously printed one to a page,
take us on a carefully-crafted journey, beginning with a
moonflower that opens at night:
the
moonflower
even as it trembles
no longer a bud
We
might see the moonflower as an implied metaphor for the
poet at the apex of experience and of the life journey,
delighting in all the senses:
walking
past,
after the fragrance
the linden tree
storing
in memory the imagery of each moment:
I
would engrave
this bare mountain on my mind
and take it home
The
poet has carefully chosen the conditional (would engrave)
because she wisely knows and accepts that she cannot keep
the mountains image. Additionally, she has arrived
at the quintessential acceptance, forcefully punctuated
by two periods, that moments in nature are just that:
above
the harbor
an autumn moon tonight.
just that.
Just
as the rays of sunshine emerge from the storm clouds in
Kuliks engraving, so too Davidsons final haiku
promises something beyond aloneness and acceptance:
sitting
quietly
in a mountain clearing
bird song more and more
Through
twelve haiku, we have shared a journey into the universal
with a wise and gracious master of haiku.
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