Merge With The River by James Downs
Reviewed by Joseph Zaccardi on PoetsWest
In the poem “Source,” James Downs writes: “Words are in the river”, and it is here in this volume of
poetry that the poet plumbs the depths of nature; the changing sounds, shapes and movements of
water. The concomitant awareness of the living body and the living spirit reside here, inhabit the
same space. Downs uses a light hand in his art, reaching out to the reader with lucid images to find
out just what draws him, time and time again, to the river, and in so doing shares this experience;
lets it open out.
Merge With The River is divided into five sections. Each starts with an epigraph; the one that
tantalized me the most is a quote by Sy Syfransky, editor of the Sun, that starts: “To which god shall
I pray today?” And James Downs answers in his well-wrought voice. Here’s the start of the poem
“String.”
I have come to this water’s edge
a pledge of sorts to
strenuous wilderness strivings
a ritual of belief in
particles of
loam wave breeze dirt
this is my church…
Then he surprises and encapsulates, distills if you will, with a scattering of haiku throughout this
volume. These are not simple haiku that meet the forms criteria, though they do that too, but rather
poems that illuminate and exalt. Each one, perfect as a whole and perfect in their shapes, can be
taken apart and still work, because they are not built upon an anchoring phrase but because they
are buoyant. Here’s one in its entirety: “Thousand leaves in breeze / Buddhist bells ringing silence
/ that follows deafens”. Songs and silences in each line; this is a masterful achievement.
Wonderful as all these poems are in this collection, the poet allows that he’s unable to devote every
waking and sleeping moment to his craft; after all he has to make a living, but he is so close, and
the fact that he lives and works in Yosemite National Park certainly enables him to focus and
create. He writes everyday, and that in the end is what it takes to live a poetic life and to compose
what swirls and eddies, what merges with the river. He has become a part of this grand place where
he can return and return, as he aptly wrote in the poem “Weather,” “In the wind there is a world / in
the world there is a wind / let ‘er ring!”
We’re listening!
This is a fine collection of poems by a fine poet, and a fine read.