James P. Lenfestey

https://www.startribune.com/review-seeking-the-cave-a-pilgrimage-to-cold-mountai...

eview: 'Seeking the Cave: A Pilgrimage to Cold Mountain,' by James Lenfestey
NONFICTION: A Minnesota writer journeys to Japan and China to pay homage to a T'ang dynasty poet.
By EMILY WALZ Special to the Star Tribune
September 22, 2014 — 10:39am
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"Seeking the Cave," by James Lenfestey
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James Lenfestey's "Seeking the Cave" brings readers on a journey through Japan and into "the literary heart of the Middle Kingdom." Taking inspiration from the Japanese form haibun, which interweaves poetry and prose, Lenfestey chronicles his trek to China's Han-shan, or Cold Mountain, to pay homage to the ancient T'ang dynasty poet who retreated there and took its name.

A former journalist, educator and consultant, Lenfestey makes no claim to be an expert on China or Chinese poetry. Rather, he approaches Han-shan out of a connection with the poet's writing, which Lenfestey discovered when a New England bookseller placed a book of poems into his hands some 30 years ago.

Popular first in Japan and later in the United States (Kerouac dedicated "The Dharma Bums" to Han-Shan, influenced by Gary Snyder's work translating his poems), Han-shan is not taught in Chinese schools. As Lenfestey notes, "the Chinese don't much care for Cold Mountain's poems — his rough, colloquial voice, his uncertain, eccentric ways."

Lenfestey makes it easy to picture the neon flashes of Tokyo and Mount Fuji from the train window, a "wacky, akimbo restaurant" in Kyoto, "dim as a cave" with its low entry-door, Chinese construction sites "supported by another mad filigree of bamboo scaffolding" and "battery-powered handmade tops sparkling with lights spinning and dancing over the ancient cobblestones." His lighthearted approach, poet's attention to detail and genuine passion for the poems of Han-shan bring the narrative far beyond essential archetypes of the Far East. Rather than chasing some abstract idea of what he will find in China, Lenfestey is on a journey to pay tribute to one of his chief influences, poet to poet, across continents and centuries.

Beyond bumping over roads into a southern Chinese mountain range, "Seeking the Cave" chronicles the author's search for "the quiet within" — the urge to withdraw, following all of these poets who left everything to go into the mountains and, after a busy life scribbling in stolen late evening and early morning hours, to turn back to poetry.

As befits the haibun form, the narrative cushions a series of poems. Most form from moments, merging contemporary scenes with an older aesthetic, such as this one, titled "In Front of Takashimaya Department Store Before It Opens":
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James Lenfestey

Listen to the shoe soles, like herds of gazelles!

Tap slap, tap slap of backless heels,

woodblock prints of sandal flats,

leather swish of knee-high boots,

oxford scrape of company men.

All march to the tune of shiny dark towers.

Across the street, the tallest crane in Japan

pivots against the sky, and flies higher.
>>>>>>>>>>

See also: Review From Publisher:

When an independent bookseller discerns Lenfestey’s difficulties, and prescribes for a remedy the poems of a Chinese hermit named Han Shan, Lenfestey’s life is changed forever. After “swallowing the poems like aspirin” for the next thirty years, a spirited embrace of this ancient poet called Cold Mountain—the poet he has come to see as a guiding light in his life—prompts Lenfestey to travel to China on a pilgrim’s search for his cave. Along the way, this quest takes our author first to Tokyo, where he visits with the foremost translator and scholar of eastern poetry, Burton Watson, and from there across China, from the enormous chanting hall of ten thousand Buddhas in Bailin Temple to the birthplace of Confucius.

A singular combination of travel writing, memoir, translation, and poetry, Seeking the Cave is both deeply personal and universally illuminating. “Uniting our brief literary life with the ancient richness of Chinese culture” (Robert Bly), this extraordinary book evokes the transformative power of poetry, and the way it breathes meaning into our lives.… (mere)

If Bees Are Few: A Hive of Bee Poems edited by James P. Lenfestey is a collection of poems title after an Emily Dickinson poem. After a career in academia, advertising, and journalism as an editorial writer at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where he won several Page One awards for excellence, James P. Lenfestey has published poetry, reviews, and articles, plus a book of essays.

This collection covers centuries of poets and nearly every bee associated trait. From the pollinators, to colony collapse disorder, to fertility in general, bees or their mannerisms are examined. Lessons on hive life, the difference between hive and ground bees, and the unique bumble bee are given. Poets from modern to medieval contribute to this collection. Rumi contributes "When Grapes Turn to Wine. Emerson gives the reader "The Humble Bee":

Insect lover of the sun,
Joy of thy dominion!
Sailor of the atmosphere;
Swimmer through the waves of air;
Voyager of light and noon

James Silas Rogers tells of liberating a bumble bee from his basement and Lawrence Ferlinghetti tells of two bees trapped in his cabin and their different behaviors. The range of topics and views of the poets allow for a large number of poems on the same seemingly simple topic, bees, to seem fresh and not repetitious. The collection is listed as three hundred pages but the Kindle advance copy reads much more quickly. I would assume that the print edition will be illustrated. Regardless, the poetry is great and proceeds from the sale will go to the University of Minnesota Bee Lab and its efforts to help save the bees.

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do
If bees are few.

Emily Dickinson, XCVII… (mere)

I am not a big fan of poetry to be honest, but I do like bees =P
Netgalley was advertising a bunch of poetry books and I thought why not?
Unfortunately, this book didn't keep my interest...
This is a sample poem:

Honeybees prefer the nectar
of the youngest blossoms.
Ground bees delight in
ripened fruit on the grass.
The honeybee turns nectar to honey,
then dies and is pushed from the hive.
The ground bee dies sated
in the sugar of fallen fruit.

I just don't get it I guess...


… (mere)

***This book was reviewed for Netgalley***

‘Forget not bees in winter, though they sleep.’
~Victoria Sackville-West

If Bees are Few.. is an anthology of poems about bees written by poets through the ages, and edited by James P. Lenfesty. Why a book of bee poems, you might ask? Bees are cornerstone creatures, critters that, by virtue of the work they do, support the underpinnings of the environment. If bees disappeared, as hives are doing at an increasingly alarming rate, it wouldn't be long before food chains became severely affected as many plant species rely on bees for propagation. No bees, plants start dying off, followed by the creatures that eat plants, and the predators that hunt them.

Proceeds from the book sales goes to the Bee Lab at the University of Minnesota, to help with continued research. I love that! Bees are so important to environment. If you’d like to learn more about the Bee Lab, visit www.beelab.umn.edu.

Not only are bees environmentally valuable, but they are important sacred animals to many groups, oftentimes representing communication and cooperation, and many of the poems gathered within these pages reflect those natures.

I love the quotes before ToC. They were so appropriate. Poems are listed within alphabetical by the author's last name. I really liked Sherman Alexie’s In the Matter of Human v. Bee, especially the ‘For the Beekeepers’ section. This was my first exposure to this poet’s work and I wasnt disappointed. Summer at the Orphanage by Laure-anne Bosselaar was a sad poem, touching in its simplicity.

I did notice that Emily Dickinson’s poems are not marked as such. There was no transition from Deppe’s poem to Dickinson's. It was a bit odd til I sussed it out.

Overall, though, this was a great collection, with work from Alexie to Whitman, and everywhere between. If you love the beauty of poetry, the majesty of bees, or better yet, both, check out If Bees are Few…. and remember, proceeds go to help bee research!… (mere)