SUNLIGHT COMES AND GOES
by Francine Porad, Vandina Press 10392 NE 12th Street, I-307 Bellevue, WA 98004-4263, USA, Published 2004, $15.
This collection of haiku by Francine Porad is filled with moments captured by a poet's as well as a painter's eye. Every shift of shadow and color inspires and reminds us of what true dedication to poetry and art is all about. Porad's watercolor collages that accompany this collection are illuminating; they weave in the modulations that sunlight brings and this medium of watercolor becomes a message which explores, as a symbol, the fluid motion of time as light and how quickly both come and go, transforming us inexplicably.
The poet's visual perception invites the reader to always search for color in a darkened sky:
summer storm
sky search
for a rainbow
She show us (without telling us) of life's mutability:
sparrow in the mist
fluffed to a flat ball
winter deepens
Her haiku dedicated to her deceased husband become a poignant discourse on the sorrow filled paths we must often take in life:
every day is endless
viewed alone
the full moon
However, forever optimistic and philosophical, the poet/artist becomes a seeker of light, once again, even in the midst of darkness:
winter dark . . .
throughout the rockery
moon-lit stones
After my father's death my mother would repeat how lonely the blinds looked pulled against a setting sun; to me this wonderful haiku expresses just this feeling and gives us a profound image which rings so true:
Venetian blinds
a stripe of sunlight
comes and goes
twilight settles
on the rhododendrons . . .
shadows reach my face
In this haiku the poet--in an eloquently simple way--illustrates how we are all affected by the change of light that touches our life. The poet/artist teaches us, too, how light and shadow (such a rich symbol of life and death) circle around us; as we lean into this variegated light which circumscribes our life, we learn to love, we learn to blossom:
afternoon sun . . .
bloom-laden and leaning
camellia tree
This book is a beautiful example of an interdisciplinary approach to haiku and like the sunlight that appears throughout this collection you will be touched and warmed by it. (END)
