What Book!?
Buddha Poems from Beat to Hiphop
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
What Book!? is a lively anthology of modern mindful poetry, featuring 330 selections from 125 contributors. Also included are "mind-writing exercises" by Allen Ginsberg and a meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh.
Themes include love, nature, pacifism and violence, the avant-garde, family, silence, and song. The contents include original work and translations; performance art and conceptual art; lyrics, arias, and blues; picture poems and calligraphy; prose poetry and sonnets; haiku; meditations and sutras; journal entries; bucolics; jeremiads; postmodernism; and other artifacts from the intersection of meditation and art.
Its rich tapestry of voices includes Peter Coyote, Maxine Hong Kingston, Yoko Ono, Czeslaw Milosz, Robinson Jeffers, Yusef Komunyakaa, Lawson Inada, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Laurie Anderson, John Cage, Thomas Merton, Robert Aitken, Norman Fischer, Gary Snyder, Diane de Prima, Mary Oliver, Stephen Mitchell, bell hooks, Adam Yauch, brand-new discoveries, and children of all ages.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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. The immigrant Buddhist teachers of the past century would indeed be amazed to see the range here. Yet, Gach's collection is also a disappointment, confused in its presentation and insufficient in its documentation. The goofy title, chosen out of admitted "laziness," is slim in implication--Gach misses the pun on "wat," Thai for Buddhist temple. The subtitle is worse, since this is not a collection about the Buddha as such. The collection also omits some classic poems like Gary Snyder's "The Blue Sky" and Jack Kerouac's "Mexico City Blues." Nor are the selections explained historically, linguistically or geographically. While the book's lighthearted presentation and eclectic inclusions will make it a valuable companion for devotees and sympathizing "night-stand Buddhists," Gach settles for scattershot idiosyncrasy and offers only casual insight into Buddhism and poetry.
