Seeking the Cave A Pilgrimage To Cold Mountain

by Lenfestey, James P.

• ISBN13: 9781571313461
• ISBN10: 157131346X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-10-21
• Publisher: Milkweed Editions

Summary

In this transformative book, award-winning poet and essayist James Lenfestey makes an epic journey across the world to find the Cold Mountain Cave, a location long believed to exist only in myths and the ancient home of his idol, Han Shan, author of the Cold Mountain poems. Lenfestey’s voyage takes him from the Midwestern United States to Tokyo to a road trip across the expanse of China with frequent excursions to the country’s rich historical and cultural landmarks. As he makes his way to the cave, Lenfestey learns more than history or geography; he discovers his identity as a writer and a poet. Interspersed with poems by both the author and Han Shan, Seeking the Cave will appeal to lovers of poetry and travel narrative alike.

Author Biography

An award-winning academic, advertising executive, and journalist, James Lenfestey has published four poetry collections and a book of personal essays. The chair of the Literary Witnesses poetry series, he lives in Minneapolis.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

PREFACE:

Han-Shan Haibun

PROLOGUE:

My Own Private China

BOOK I

FINDING THE PATH

On the Road
Between Two Hurricanes
Encounter with the Arch-Translator
Passage to More than Kyoto
Kyoto Koan
Rendezvous at Narita
Beijing: The Biggest Bell in the World
In Xanadu Did Genghis Khan
Jia Dao and the Riddle of Sound and Sense

BOOK I I

FROM BUDDHIST TEMPLES TO SOARING CRANES

Buddhists for the Night
Breakfast with Confucius
Speedways, Corn Roads, and Apple Lanes
Ordinary and Extraordinary Graves
Du Fu’s Sorrow
Bai Juyi’s “Idle Droning”
What the Old Master Wrote
The Soaring Cranes of Xi’an
Road to Heaven
First Adventure in Hermit Hunting
An Evening with Dr. Hu
Turtles All the Way Down

BOOK I I I

SLEEPLESS DREAMS TO DREAMLESS SLEEP

Give It Its True Name
Moon Music
Drinking Wine with Li Bai
Two Depressing Poems in Wuhu
Beginning-to-Believe Peak
The Floating World of Poet-Engineers
“Six” and the Single Traveler
Cold Mountain: Whose Story Is It?
The Hermit of Cold Mountain
"The Birds and Their Chatter”
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale
One New God
Meanwhile, Back in the Ka-ching

EPILOGUE:

Christmas Morning

POSTSCRIPT:

Finding My Own True Name

APPENDIX :

Coda; Endnotes; Permissions, List of Sources