By Maryglenn Warnock
Dowling Press
From the land of Merton, an old Tree Farmer claims his place as a Kentucky master of Haiku: Kentucky native Charles D. Williams has penned an extraordinary new volume of verse, Echo Ridge.
Williams, a Kentucky lawyer and nationally-recognized tree farmer, has crafted three volumes in seven years—each more interesting and compelling than the other. In Echo Ridge, his latest work, Williams delivers a splendid selection of verse. Written in the form of haiku — a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, written in three lines of five syllables, seven syllables, and five syllables and usually involving observance and reverence of nature and season—Echo Ridge is masterful.
Charles Williams, tree farmer and author
A slim volume gleaned from journal entries, Echo Ridge invites readers to come alongside for a year-long meditation on time, place, seasons, nature, and verse. Presented chronologically, the selections in Echo Ridge capture the seasons, the splendor of farm life, the passage of time, and the magnificence of nature. Williams’ haiku cover topics that range from nature’s splendor to nature’s fury; from starkness to abundance; from the heat of high summer to the frigidity of a gray Kentucky winter; from sheepdogs to morel mushrooms; from the long life of a good dog to the serendipitous birth of a donkey colt, and the maddeningly-appropriate end to a bleak year.
Delivered with an intensity that belies their short form, the entries in Echo Ridge capture wonder, spectacle, beauty, power, joy, melancholy, the passage of time, and the spaces where past and present intersect. It is a powerful, moving, and evocative collection to be savored.
A masterful writer, Williams has fused place, seasons, and time in these remarkable Haiku. Resplendent with powerful observations, and delivered in a quietly simple but not simplistic manner, Williams’ writing soars in these vibrant short-form pieces. Much more than a meditation on the four seasons, Echo Ridge, with its atmospheric, vivid verse, captures the splendor Williams observes from his vantage point on West Wind Farm, the land in Central Kentucky he has called home for over 35 years. A collection with eyes, a heart, and a pulse, Echo Ridge teems with intensity.
Williams, whose previous haiku volumes include The Seasons at West Wind Farm and The Green Roar of Zen (both published by West Virginia University School of Law in 2016, and 2018, respectively) has garnered high praise:
“Williams reminds me of Wendell Berry in his connection to and love of nature.”
– Judge James Clarke, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
“This is a diary of so many things, and things that, to my mind, matter very much. The poems are so sensual, vivid, vital, melancholy, calm and wild.”
– Carolyn Guinzio, author of A Vertigo Book
“A perfect melding of writer, place and form.”
–Davis McCombs, author of lore
“Williams’s close observation of nature is truly a gift. Here we see the depth of what his decades of careful attention to the natural world around him have planted in his heart”
–Jack Clark Robinson, Franciscan Friar, St. Anthony of Padua Friary St. Louis
Charles D. Williams is a Kentucky native, a graduate of The Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, Duke University, and the University of Kentucky School of Law. Williams has practiced law in Kentucky for over five decades. He has earned numerous accolades and recognition for his work as a tree farmer. Named Kentucky Tree Farmer of the Year, Williams has also been awarded the Aldo Leopold Conservation Award for conservation stewardship, and the Central Region Tree Farmer of the Year, a prestigious honor spanning 13 states.
Echo Ridge is available through major online retailers. Echo Ridge may also be ordered directly from the publisher. For order inquiries, please contact kytreefarm@yahoo.com or call (270)-524-5621.
