A Cartload of Scrolls

by Lenfestey, James P.

• ISBN13: 9780977945856
• ISBN10: 0977945855
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-11-29
• Publisher: Consortium Book Sales & Dist

Summary

"These aren't translations of Han-shan's poems; they're transmissions of his spirit!"-Eric Utne, founder of Utne Reader "I love this book!"-Jim Moore In 1974, author James P. Lenfestey came upon the book Cold Mountain: 100 Poems of the T'ang Dynasty Poet Han-shan, translated by Burton Watson, and it cured his warts. It also turned out to be the voice he had "missed" all his life. For the first and only time in his writing life, Lenfestey began to "write back" to another author. The result thirty-three years later is this collection of one hundred poems, inspired by the form and sensibility of that 1,200-year-old Chinese hermit, yet brimming with Lenfestey's own humor, wisdom, insight, and delight in language. Titles such as "Han-shan is the Cure for Warts," "Thinking of Sex Like the Chinese," and "Oracle Bones" provide a glimpse into Lenfestey's poetic landscape. This book is dedicated to poetic translator Burton Watson, eighty-one, whom Lenfestey visited in Tokyo on a pilgrimage to China to pay homage to Han-shan at his hermit cave.

Table of Contents

Finding My Older Brother	p. 17
Often I Wonder	p. 18
Homeless Dogs	p. 19
Snatching Syllables	p. 20
Business	p. 21
Careers	p. 22
Beached Fish	p. 23
Smoking a Pipe	p. 24
Man in the Feather Suit	p. 25
One More Birdsong	p. 26
Han-shan Is the Cure for Warts	p. 27
Certainly He Will Write a Poem Some Day	p. 28
For Years at the Cry of a Bird	p. 29
The Poet Joke	p. 30
I Read So Many Poems	p. 31
Making Poems	p. 32
In Speech, I Exaggerate	p. 33
Mating for Life	p. 34
Paying Taxes	p. 35
At the Vietnam Memorial	p. 36
The Recycler	p. 37
Bananas Half Brown	p. 38
A Fine Summer Place	p. 39
At the Waterfront	p. 40
When Sound Leaks from a Cedar Grove	p. 41
Never Alone	p. 42
My Son Reading Han-shan	p. 43
Lake Effect	p. 44
In the Studio of the Poet	p. 45
So You Think You're Special?	p. 46
Reading a Bad Poet	p. 47
Thinking of Sex Like the Chinese	p. 48
Tzu-Jan	p. 49
Ax Handle	p. 50
Losing My Calendar	p. 51
Emptying Dishwasher Mind	p. 52
What Would You Do?	p. 53
Downward Dog	p. 54
A Golden Thread to Follow	p. 55
Like That!	p. 56
The Monk Locks His Cell Behind Him	p. 57
Mortgages	p. 58
If You Never Go to School Again	p. 59
Plumes of Paper Mill Steam	p. 60
Attack by the "Serpent of Delusion"	p. 61
Reading a Great Poet	p. 62
Skull	p. 63
"Beats Yard Work," She Said	p. 64
First Born	p. 65
Daughter	p. 66
One, Two, Three, Four	p. 67
Lying in Bed, Sick, Reading Arthur Sze	p. 68
Free Land	p. 69
Old Maps: North America	p. 70
Insect Dream	p. 71
To the Gnat Drowned in my Wine at Lunch	p. 72
Full Moon Above Flower Valley Orchard	p. 73
A Brother's Return	p. 74
Friends	p. 75
Sauna	p. 76
At Summer's End	p. 77
Wife	p. 78
A Slight Feeling Inside	p. 79
Portrait in Pen and Ink	p. 80
A Modern History of Love	p. 81
Listening to my Wife Snore	p. 82
Nesting Chinese Tables	p. 83
Reading the Polish Poets	p. 84
In the Back Pew	p. 85
Gratitude to Kitty	p. 86
Yelling at Birds	p. 87
The Monk Is Forced to Speak	p. 88
Before the Grandchildren Arrive	p. 89
If You Don't Go Outdoors to Pee	p. 90
Finding a Lost Photo from Thanksgiving Dinner	p. 91
Climate Change	p. 92
Morning Storm	p. 93
One Saturday Morning in Ojai	p. 94
Making a New Friend	p. 95
Morning Walk	p. 96
En la Cathedral de Santa Domingo de Oaxaca	p. 97
The Unread Book	p. 98
Art Fight	p. 99
Setting Lead Type	p. 100
Practicing Fall Migration	p. 101
October Morning	p. 102
My Son Sleeping Downstairs with His Dog Tyrone	p. 103
Reading the T'ang Poets	p. 104
Glacial Erratic	p. 105
The Hammermill Lettershop League	p. 106
Five Cartloads of Scrolls	p. 107
Travels to the Interior	p. 108
The Open Hand	p. 109
Carved Bones	p. 110
Landscape Painting of the Northern Sung	p. 111
Oracle Bones	p. 112
Good Luck Poem	p. 113
What Am I Doing Now That I'm in Paradise?	p. 114
Scholars Compile My Biography	p. 115
Do You Have the Poems of Len-feste in Your House?	p. 116
About the Author	p. 117
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.