Cynthia Anderson’s Full Circle (Cholla Needles Press)

Book Review of Cynthia Anderson’s Book by John Brantingham

I read Cynthia Anderson’s Full Circle last night, and today I wander my forest re-seeing through the lens that she has given me. I wander the trails looking at what I might have missed, thinking about Anderson’s haiku and senryu, but being present at the same time. Anderson’s work has ennobled me as all great haiku does. Here in this forest of hemlocks, beech, and maples, I am more in touch with the natural rhythms of life, more in tune with my place in space and time.

What I love about great haiku poets from Basho to Buson to Sonia Sanchez is that they find the moment between moments, and remind me that these are what constitutes the great majority of our lives. Not the big events. Those are rare, and they can distract us from the beauty of all the other moments.

I love how the greats focus on mutability. They show me that time is passing, and the world around is changing in the way that it is supposed to. They remind me that soon this moment will pass away, and that is all right. They remind me that soon I will pass away, and that is all right as well.

Anderson does all of this for me. She captures the rhythm of the Mojave Desert, which is different from Upstate New York, where I live, but the lesson is awareness…