Any Would Be If

Poetry. California Interest. Zen Buddhism. ‘without love no quirks, ’ writes Norman Fischer in the midst of ANY WOULD BE IF. One might add: without quirks, no life, as in this book Fischer proceeds ‘by ellipsis, ’ and suggests that living, noticing, even drinking tea, manifests in similar fashion. Indeed, ‘the teacup told us how to hold it, ’ provides one of many delightful and slightly puzzling, or perhaps uncanny, moments in a book full of moments. Moments of thought, moments of action, moments of light, moments of language, moments through which ‘we pull ourselves into now.’ If one wants a book to show the world, not in its grandeur (or, maybe that, too) but in its process, in the betweenness we all inhabit, then this is the book one wants. I know I am glad to have it, and to return to it, often, ‘to be.’–Charles Alexander