Dawn Light

It would be easy for a narrator to slip into raptures of delight reading Ackerman's all-encompassing vision of the natural world at dawn, but Laural Merlington keeps the energy high while maintaining a tight grip on the material. Ackerman focuses her poetic microscope on the joys and blessings of nature's wonders, urging listeners to, literally, wake up! She quotes the thirteenth-century poet Rumi: "The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep." Merlington conveys those secrets in a rich, lovely voice, sometimes mimicking the conversation of birds, sometimes describing Ackerman's sensual, very personal awakenings. Merlington's fine performance combined with Buddhist haiku, anecdotes about daybreak from around the world, and Ackerman's ecstatic images dazzles the imagination. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine