Jim Lenfesteyv?s alter-ego, the Urban Coyote, surveys and stumbles his way from the comic to the cosmic. These true short stories about birth, graduation, marriage are one personv?s perspective on living in an urban neighborhood for 25 years.

The Urban Coyote: Howlings on Family, Community and the Search for Peace and Quiet

History

Lenfestey, James, P.

Americas

Nodin Pr

“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 MooreIn 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. James P. Lenfestey has worked as a college literature instructor, alternative school administrator, salesman, marketing communications professional, and editorial writer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where he won several Page One Awards. He has published three previous collections of poetry and a collection of personal essays, The Urban Coyote: Howlings on Family, Community and the Search for Peace and Quiet (Nodin Press). He coordinates poetry festivals and a reading series in California, Michigan, and Minneapolis, where he and his wife currently reside.

A Cartload of Scrolls: 100 Poems in the Manner of T'ang Dynasty Poet Han-shan

Literature & Fiction

United States

Holy Cow! Press

<div> In 2006, James P. Lenfestey fulfilled his dream of a pilgrimage to the cave of his teacher Han-shan, who lived twelve hundred years ago in China's Tientai Mountains. Lenfestey's acclaimed previous collection, A Cartload of Scrolls: 100 Poems in the Manner of T'ang Dynasty Poet Han-Shan (Holy Cow! Press, 2007), delighted readers with its witty and wise poetic descriptions of the beginning of this unlikely love affair. In this new collection, written in the ancient haibun form of alternating prose and poetry, he tells of another improbable literary journey beginning with visiting esteemed translator Burton Watson in Tokyo, where he has lived for nearly forty years, and ending with surprise encounters near Cold Mountain cave. Along the way, he and his merry band of traveling companions visit Buddhist temples and the sites of other ancient poets, including Chia Tao, Po Chui-i, Li Bai, Tu Fu, and Su Tung-Po. He and his companions hear their stories and leave fresh marks inside modern China, now so eager for money they label it the Ka-ching Dynasty. The book includes a DVD of videographer Mike Hazard's Cold Mountain documentary, featuring interviews with Lenfestey and well-known Chinese translators Burton Watson, Red Pine, and Gary Snyder. James P. Lenfestey has worked as a college literature instructor, alternative school administrator, salesman, and editorial writer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where he won several Page One awards. He has published four previous collections of poetry and a collection of personal essays, The Urban Coyote: Howlings on Family, Community and the Search for Peace and Quiet (Nodin Press). He coordinates poetry festivals and a reading series in California, Michigan, and Minneapolis, where he and his wife currently reside. </div>

Seeking the Cave: Han-shan Haibun: a Pilgrimage Through the Ka-ching Dynasty in Search of the T'ang

World Literature

Holy Cow Pr

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.

Seeking the Cave: A Pilgrimage To Cold Mountain

MILKWEED EDITIONS *

Born and raised with the kind of expectations that often accompany privilege, Jim Lenfestey approached his thirtieth birthday in a state of acute anxiety. A young family and a demanding work life on one hand, and a burgeoning love for poetry on the other. 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 Mountainthe poet he has come to see as a guiding light in his lifeprompts 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.

Seeking the Cave: A Pilgrimage to Cold Mountain

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

From James P. Lenfestey, a collection of poems that lends delicacy and gentle humor to durable, long-lasting love. Writing love poems fifty years into a marriage is no easy task: "If he exaggerates his love, she'll know . . . And if his desire for her is undiminished, / who would believe?" But in A Marriage Book, Lenfestey meets his own challenge with aplomb. These poems drop readers into the rich, textured world of one couple's enduring intimacy, from the warmth of a bedroom occupied by two to squabbles over miscommunications and crumbs in the kitchen. As the marriage (and the Book) transition into parenthood, Lenfestey illuminates the equally stalwart wonder of observing one's children as they age and develop. Paternal love persists, and is even fed by, watching his children argue, suffer their own mistakes, and roar horrible breath at breakfast. So much poetry is about storms, / bruised fruit, locusts eating everything," he writes. "This poem is about a harvest that satisfies." A Marriage Book is a collection that essences the magic from the household quotidian, creating a technicolor portrait of a vibrant and dynamic family.

A Marriage Book: Poems

Genre Fiction

Thirteen September Moons: A Love Story

Poetry

Finishing Line Press

East Bluff: Mackinac Poems Old & New

Red Dragonfly Press

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