A POET KNOWN for his narratives, like Ludlow, the acclaimed historical-novel-in-verse turned opera, David Mason curates the archipelago of intensely satisfying lyric poems in Pacific Light with the skill of a consummate storyteller. His imaginative sweep is evident in “The Air in Tasmania,” set in his adopted home of Australia, where “the land / takes flying lessons from the air / and the air’s great cleanser, the sea,” and where we traverse “from person to bird and back,” but it’s the details that matter. The collection is rich in these details, providing readers with a definite sense of place, yet at the same time, like the birds of the air, we are forever in flux.