Kirjahaku

In X=, Stephen Berg winds through the wreck of longing and loss, navigating the strains of curious beauty with flashes of electrifying clarity. Stripping bare the burdens of gnawing, unknowing fear, Berg has found his way into a voice of great energy and spontaneity, into a form of overwhelming urgency and detail.

Ikkyu (1394-1481) was a Japanese monk and Zen master who demounced many of his fellow monks and ridiculed orthodox Zen practices. In this volume, acclaimed poet Stephen Berg presents freely adapted versions o many of Ikkyu's most compelling poems as well as new poems inspired by Ikkyu.

A major collection of works by the founder and co-editor of American Poetry Review, author of Grief and In It. "Sharp, thoughtful, and wonderfully wild."--Library Journal"Stephen Berg is a well-kept secret....Berg plies the reader's attention with simplicity and candor."--American Bookseller

A major collection of works by the founder and co-editor of American Poetry Review, author of Grief and In It. "Sharp, thoughtful, and wonderfully wild."--Library Journal "Stephen Berg is a well-kept secret....Berg plies the reader's attention with simplicity and candor."--American Bookseller

An eccentric classic of Zen poetryWhen Zen master Ikkyu Sojun (1394-1481) was appointed headmaster of the great temple at Kyoto, he lasted nine days before denouncing the rampant hypocrisy he saw among the monks there. He in turn invited them to look for him in the sake parlors of the Pleasure Quarters. A Zen monk-poet-calligrapher-musician, he dared to write about the joys of erotic love, along with more traditional Zen themes. He was an eccentric and genius who dared to defy authority and despised corruption. Although he lived during times plagued by war, famine, rioting, and religious upheaval, his writing and music prevailed, influencing Japanese culture to this day.Ikkyu scandalized the Zen community of his day and is likely to scandalize some readers even now--his short poems are simultaneously bawdy, abrupt, vulgar, and reverential... It is impossible not to love the velocity and variety of his verse.--The Philadelphia InquirerStephen Berg is exactly the right poet to have translated these poems.--Hayden Carruth, The Hudson ReviewA deeply sensual man, Ikkyu had little patience for the fussiness of monastic life and ritual... What is especially appealing about Ikkyu's poetry is the way his sensuality infuses his Zen sensibility.--American Book ReviewStephen Berg (1934-2014) was the founder and editor of American Poetry Review. Also available by Stephen BergSteel CricketPB $16.00, 1-55659-075-X - CUSANew & Selected PoemsPB $12.00, 1-55659-043-1 - CUSA

"We need poets like this. Mr. Berg relentlessly describes what we would often prefer to forget but can't allow ourselves to forget."--The New York Times Book ReviewCertain poems of Zen masters, including work by Ikkyu, Basho, and Dogen, have haunted and nourished readers from around the world for centuries--and Steven Berg for fifty years. Driven to know "what these people thought, believed, felt," Berg rewrote existing translations to create provocative, energized, and multilayered versions.These are not new poems, nor are they old poems. These are explorations into the deeper resonances of Zen masters, expounding on the simple themes of the minute and overpowering. This is Zen poetry to the core, nodding to the poets who came before while breathing new life into the forms and meanings."Deathsong, by Hakuin"Punch your fist mind of a fist through this black wall al- ways in front of you always the next step you can't take as you walk into it through it but can't because it's who you are but can't be do not want to be nothing but the place where you were are won't be slam this fist of a fist into the wall that isn't even here built of the billion nows yous which when it finally is you finally face it you pass through like a raw black breathStephen Berg is the founder and co-editor of The American Poetry Review and author of numerous collections of poetry and translations. He lives in Philadelphia.