| Poetry Book Reviews
by Laura Stamps LEAVING BLUE MOUNTAINS by Kevin Hull, 2003, 110 pages, paper, $11.99 (Impermanence Press, 611 Mar Vista, Los Osos, CA 93402) Kevin Hull is a writer and poet, whose poetry has appeared in numerous small press journals here and abroad. He is also the editor and publisher of White Heron Poetry Journal and White Heron Press. Hull has just signed a contract for the publication of his memoir, NAMELESS TRAVELER, which should be in bookstores next year, and he is also at work on a novel. Originally from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Hull lived for many years in California. He currently resides in southwest Florida. This lovely collection of 72 poems begins with a quote from Upanishad: "The real endures, the unreal passes away." Thus we begin a poetic journey with Hull, traveling through poems that illustrate his life as a boy growing up in the Blue Ridge and as an adult living in California. But this is also a journey of the soul. Hull is a deeply spiritual man, and these poems chronicle his lifelong spiritual quest as well. A photograph of the Blue Ridge graces the cover of this attractive book, which is divided into three sections: This Floating Pageantry; Still Light, Still Shadow; and The Breath of Things Lightly Borne. Each section contains a selection of poems from both coasts, but the undercurrent is always the mystical pull of the mountains on one's soul. I, too, grew up in the Appalachian Mountains, so I know what it's like to live with the mountains in your blood. Having left that area as well, I also know what it's like to leave a place that never leaves you. Hull expresses this best in the poem LOST HILLS: "His life hides in the silence of the hills, / the horizon sealed as a vision of God. / Beauty was made for him; he is a blood relation." My favorite of the California poems is CERRO ALTO, in which the poet walks on the beach with his son, a mystical union of father and son, place and spirit: "Clear above the fog and trouble, / we discuss the nature of God, the Mysteries. / I am relieved to find in my son / thoughts of his own. // We sit gazing upon folds / that carry, irretrievably, / down to the sea. / A hawk emerges from the brush, / soars below us. // And in us something merges: / doubt and love, fear and joy balanced, as it were, / on a precipice, a cloud, a wave." Hull states the spiritual theme of this collection in AS IF: "We wanted to solve the problem of existence; / and to love." The poet knows that in spiritual matters the answer often lies within the question. The poem THE INHERITANCE is a good example: "Dear children: / What will I leave you? / An old guitar, boxes bloated with memory, / some worn-out shoes? Maybe a million / dollars or a book, who knows? // What my father could give, / I too will offer: all the good and evil / of our unintended ignorance, / and this-my song of faith / surrendered freely." The answer also lies in a mystical interpretation of the landscape, and through finely crafted poems like HORSES OF PARADISE the poet continues to lead us in that direction: "The plum trees are in bloom / with a color and a charm beyond naming. / I think of love's beauty, how it changes / and remains the same- // riding the wind across the meadows of paradise, / bare-back, looking straight into the center of things." Hull is an accomplished poet, who chooses his lines carefully, stringing words like jewels to create poems that shimmer and illuminate the heart. This collection is essentially a love story-the love of the poet for a heritage of beauty from the Blue Ridge Mountains. The love for family and dear friends. And it is also a story of the infinite journey many of us undertake toward the divine love of God. How do we begin? Hull tells us in MOUNTAIN HAIKU: "climbing the trail / mist and man / for nothing // the blowing mist / manzanita aglow // unreasonable joy / one foot in front / of the other." This is one of those books that must be read slowly and savored. © Laura Stamps laurastamps@mindspring.com |