Lifted to the Wind: Poems 1974 – 2015 by Susan Gardner
Red Mountain Press, 2015
Susan Gardner’s latest book feels special to the touch. The texture of the cover and the following pages, displaying imagistic poems and supplemental ink paintings and calligraphy, effectively move the reader to contemplate the glory of the natural world as well as everyday realities that are often overlooked. The cover photo, “Yellow Tree, Montserrat, Catalunya Spain,” sets the tone for the collection: a solitary yellow-leafed tree stands on a rugged hillside amidst dark green forest, gray rock and misty clouds enshrouding the scene. The off-set color of the yellow tree subtly symbolizes the collection—writing is an attempt to recognize and record the ordinary as extraordinary, to memorialize the impressions of a seeker for those too busy to notice.
Gardner’s poems draw on her wide-ranging travels and her knowledge of several world cultures and religions, from her translations from Spanish to her ekphrastic interpretations of Asian texts. Her collection draws the reader into a timeless, holy conversation—as if prayer is a pattern of observation and response, a way of seeking truth beyond the immediate surface. A careful reading of Lifted to the Wind requires a reflective, contemplative mood. The work functions as ritual. The aesthetic control that Gardner exhibits rewards such careful attention, as her poem “Homebound” illustrates:
straw of summer flowers
held immobile, upright in snowdirt tracks a frozen river of mud
refreeze in ruts half a foot deepblue berries weight juniper trees
lean fence posts pull wire
shadows across iced fieldswhite-whiskered crane alone
in morning stillness
long feathers amidst brittle stems
eyes sweep cloud-struck sky
one path home.
The lack of punctuation reinforces the imagistic nature of the lines. The poem follows calligraphy of the same title on the previous page, thus suggesting the interplay between cultures, between language and visual art, between then and now. The attraction of “home” is universal, as is the “path” that seekers must traverse to finally arrive.
A number of her poems appear in translation from Spanish, as with the following example:
Lapse of Memory
Yellowing leaves murmur in the sun
brush the cool autumn dust
in small cloudsforgetful of the humid summer
Lapsus
Las hojas amarillentas murmuran bajo el sol
rozando el polvo fresco del otono
en nubes diminutasolvidadizas del verano humedo.
Gardner calls readers to consider how we’re forgetting the beauty that has power to raise us, that helps overcome the uncomfortable. Her work connects readers to a poetic tradition that endures despite the limits of time and the restraints of language and society.
Ken Hada has published six collections of poetry, including his latest, Persimmon Sunday (VAC: Purple Flag). His work has been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and twice named finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award. See www.kenhada.org.