From birds to bumblebees to bison, Charles Finn (editor of High Desert Journal) exquisitely captures the minute details of chance encounters with a variety of animals, insects and birds. Wild Delicate Seconds encapsulates these accidental meetings in vivid, colorful prose that reads like poetry; Finn describes an owl poised "like a teardrop against the dark wall of forest" or a heron that resembles "a hunched stone, an oval of waiting." From the amusing antics of four flying squirrels that launch themselves into space ("square as kites they flew--stuntmen, stuntwomen, acrobats in a jungle gym world") to the serenity of trumpeter swans ("all curves and smoothness and grace... like a string of white pearls"), Finn causes time to stand still and forces the reader to pause in an otherwise hectic day.
Short, sweet and compassionate, the tiny details in these essays speak to the heart, bringing the peace, humility and serenity of the natural world to those who otherwise might not notice what Finn aptly describes. "Because of the unexpectedness of these meetings they held a special quality for me," he writes. "Always there was a timelessness, a residue of the sacred, and a lingering feeling that I was witnessing something spectacular. And I was." Readers will feel the same way after indulging in each of these brief reflections. --Lee E. Cart, freelance reviewer