What Book!?: Buddha Poems from Beat to Hiphop
An anthology of Buddha poems that moves from Beat writing to hip-hop and treats poetry as spiritual practice.
Work Information
An anthology of Buddha poems that moves from Beat writing to hip-hop and treats poetry as spiritual practice.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Parallax Press
- Published
- 1998-04-01
- Pages
- 272 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 11.43 x 1.47 x 20.32 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780938077923
- ISBN-10
- 0938077929
- Price
- 3222 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/History & Criticism/Criticism & Theory
With poems from spiritual teachers to jazz musicians, from the monastery to the street, What Book!? brings together a boad range of verse, expressions of living in an awakened way. " A poet once located poetry as somewhere before or after words take place. Mindfulness is the practice of finding that realm, dwelling there, and cultivating the ability to live completely in the present, deeply aware and appreciative of life." - from the author's Preface. "This enigmatically titled anthology offers numerous delights and valuable evidence that great poetic variety, from haiku and witty two liners to page-long discourses, has by now given distinct expression to Western Buddhism." - Publisher’s Weekly.
Editor Gary Gach is a writer and lifelong meditator who has engaged in many roles during his lifetime including: actor, bookshop clerk, dishwasher, hospital administrator, office temp, stevedore, teacher, and typographer. Lay-ordained by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in 2008, he has authored eight books. Gary lives in San Francisco, California.
Reviews
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This book is everything: it's a great collection of different poems all extremely good that inspire and make me appreciate the fact of being alive to witness such mastery with words. As I see it, Poetry is a gateway to human understanding, and this book, if you give it a chance, will let you discover why.
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One of the joys of Buddhism is that there are so many ways to get the dharma. This is a collection of poems that helps you do that. Or, if you aren't Buddhist, it is a collection which looks at life from a point of compassion and wonder. There is a fair amount of reference to Buddhist themes, but you can look them up or just work from context. Definitions are not essential to understand the point. Two of my favorites include: "A Father's Poem" by Sara Harsone about how to find the time to be yourself when so much of your life has to be for your children. And, "Ecolog" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti about finding unexpected, life changing beauty in fish (Who knew?) The only complaint I have is that the transposition to Kindle used a method which did not leave all the poems in the same font and size everywhere, making the text of some of the poems too small (have to turn to portrait view and increase font. Then decrease it for the next poem. occasionally having to mess with the margins.) The poems are pretty eclectic, but well chosen. This is a collection you can return to repeatedly and get something new each time.
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I carry this books and its precious words with me wherever I go!
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Even my friends who think poetry is boring and ponderous and Buddha a smiling statue (thanks probably to some stodgy professors 20 years ago) couldn't put this book down when they spotted it on my coffee table. With a sly sense of humor and enormous knowledge of his subject, Gary Gach has taken a single (and often misunderstood)theme and compiled a "panorama" of examples that give life and texture to Buddha and Buddhism. What he has done is kind of like a hundred talented photographers, using radically different techniques, having their crack at one single image or subject, each in his or her own way. Uniting dozens of other voices, Gach has given texture and spirit to his subject. What surprised me the most is that this book never gets old -- I read it over and over again, sometimes a page, sometimes a poem at a time.
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Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsburg, Thich Nat Hanh, Jack Kerouac, to name a few poets included in this anthology, the content of this book makes the universe shake with laughter and insight. Wonderfully curated and a must for everyone interested in recognizing we are all bodhisattvas, perhaps unknowingly.