Echo Ridge Reviewed by Norm Goldman of Bookpleasures.com
- By Norm Goldman
- Published January 21, 2022
- Poetry
Norm Goldman
Reviewer & Author Interviewer, Norm Goldman. Norm is the Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com.
He has been reviewing books for the past twenty years after retiring from the legal profession.
To read more about Norm Follow Here
Author: Charles Dowling Williams
Publisher: WEST WIND BOOKS
ISBN-10 173763952 ISBN-13 978-1737639527
Are you feeling saturated
with the Covid tsunami of frightful news and the turmoil affecting
your everyday existence? An excellent remedy to soothe your stress is
to pick up a copy of Charles Dowling Williams' Echo Ridge and read
all or some of his haiku poetry.
This inspiring selection of
haiku will soothe your emotions. It will put matters into
perspective, help free your mind, become attuned to your senses, and
invite you to notice the world around you.
Williams is a
lawyer in Munfordville, Hart County, Kentucky. He is also a tree
farmer. For his forestry and conservation practices, he has earned
many awards. His first work of Haiku, Seasons of West Wind Farm, was
published in 2016. This was followed by The Green Road of Zen in
2018. He has also composed many varied works of fiction and
non-fiction.
On the opening page to Echo, Ridge Williams
informs his readers that he has kept calendar diaries for over 40
years. It is from these notebooks that comprise the origin of many of
his haiku poems.
Haiku (pronounced
"high-koo") is a Japanese style of poetry considered the
smallest form of poetry in the world.
Although the first trait
we notice about a haiku poem is its form, where the first and last
lines of the poem have five syllables and the second or middle line
has seven, it is necessary to proceed beyond its form towards the
subject. You will then be able to determine its effects on
you.
Williams's compilation demonstrates that Haiku poets
convey specific emotions and images. For illustration, here is one
culled from Williams' selection dated June 15th, 2019, at 4:00
a.m.
"silence in the house
this fragrance of wild
roses
wakes me with a roar"
You can virtually feel the
silence at this early hour of the morning and breathe the magnificent
rose fragrance that will inevitably wake you!
Another composed
on June 2nd, 2018, illustrates a memorable picture where Williams
pares down the bare essentials in just fourteen words, forcing every
syllable and word count.
"snakes dance when mating
the
quick coil of a tango-
while hiding from hawks"
Notice
the realistic imagery that sketches a picture of the writhing and
twisting, the snakes never apart. No doubt, our minds are drawn well
into the present.
How about some nostalgia? In this one,
Williams leaves a lot unsaid concerning his association with his
father. It is about feelings and the connection of words to Williams'
father experiences as he hunts for nightcrawlers.
Readers are
presented with the opportunity to take part in the writing by
bringing back one's own childhood reminiscences. Quite à propos, the
verse is introduced with the following remarks: "a man who loved
fishing and raising night crawlers."
"hunting
nightcrawlers
beside my young blond father-
June nights long
ago"
In this one composed on June 5th 2020, at 4:00 a.m.
Williams captures a unique quiet and intimate stillness moment
providing more peace in life.
"deep night early
June
bull-frog-hoot owl serenade-
three of us awake"
What
I came away with reading the haiku poems in Echo Ridge were Williams'
sincere and penetrating words. These produce brilliant snapshots of
time, place, season, and nature, which permitted me to be in the
moment and connect with the themes. It also had a calming effect that
transported me to a different place and time and made me experience
the text of each poem as if I was there. Many of the haiku poems led
me to relate more profoundly to nature. Images of changing seasons
transported me back to time and places I have encountered in the
past.
Follow Here To Read Norm's Interview With Charles Dowling Williams