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"River of Light: A Conversation with Kabir" is a book-length poem that takes the reader on a week-long raft trip down a wild river in southcentral Alaska. Regional wildlife inhabit the poem s world, and the river s shifting landscape energizes and enriches the meditative mood as the river s waves and currents influence the shaping and pacing of its lines. Because the raft trip took place in 2003 during the second Iraq War, war is on the narrator s mind; but the trip is a spiritual journey as well, since the poem incorporates commentary by the fifteenth-century Indian mystic poet Kabir, who serves as a kind of mentor for the poem s narrator.
This volume includes artwork by the distinguished Alaska artist Kesler Woodward. Appropriately, the artist, who participated in the original raft trip, appears in the poem.
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About the author
John Morgan has published four earlier books of poetry and, most recently, a collection of essays, Forms of Feeling: Poetry in Our Lives. He was the first writer-in-residence at Denali National Park. He lives in Fairbanks, Alaska, and Bellingham, Washington.
Summary
Surrender to a wild river and unexpected things can happen. Time on the water can produce moments of pristine clarity or hatch wild thoughts, foster a deep connection with the real world or summon the spiritual. This book takes the reader on a soulful journey that is both deeply personal and profoundly universal.
