Overview

Early in The Beautiful Foolishness is a tongue-in-cheek poem called ""Ten Koans,"" but you quickly discover that there are far more koans in Wayne Lee's book than ten. In fact, the koan-that brief paradoxical statement used in Zen Buddhist meditation-runs throughout the book, as do Zen philosophies and haiku, of which there's an entire section. The point? To make you slow down and contemplate. Lee's poetry, widely published in journals and anthologies, here invites the reader into a world where these Asian poetic traditions meet the U.S. Southwest.

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9781956375435

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Reviews

""Wayne Lee's poetry locates the writer's self in a world full of both trouble and beauty. Birds and animals appear as stanzas unfold, as if conjured by the poet's quiet presence. Snakes, fish, a five-point buck, and above all birds serve as messengers of inspiration. This collection has many muses, including flavors of Buddhism, and moments that yield haiku. Subjects from Brahms to hydrangeas flash across the poet's consciousness, inviting not just the poet but the reader to wake up, pay attention, and hear the lyric music of words."" -Miriam Sagan, author of What Solitude Sees in Me: Uncollected Poems 1976-2023 ""The poet leads us through this broken world, where there are vestiges of paradise all around, while our limited, beautiful, ridiculous mortality defines our experience. Lee's poems are hands reaching out, a hug about to happen. Allow yourself to follow the invitation and feel the embrace of The Beautiful Foolishness."" -Michelle Holland, author of Chaos Theory and The Sound a Raven Makes ""If you delight in wondrous lines and musings, you will cherish Lee's short paradoxical poems and images where you can deliberate, ponder, and expand."" -Scott Wiggerman, author of Beginning and Ending with Emily: Ghazals & Golden Shovels ""Each of Wayne Lee's poems is a hand-cut koan of flagstone set carefully into a garden path. Smooth to the foot, yet solid. A path that challenges us from the very start.... Allow these poems to speak to you, to breathe with you, to simmer on your stove, to sear you with their brilliance."" -Katherine DiBella Seluja, author of Point of Entry and Gather the Night

Author Information

Wayne Lee is a writer, editor, and teacher. He has worked as a commercial fisherman in Alaska, a dancer and musician at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, an anodizing technician in Boulder, Colorado, a waiter at the Space Needle, classical music critic at the Seattle Times, managing editor of a seafood trade magazine, a fisheries marketing consultant in Indonesia, a college instructor and learning specialist, owner of a tutoring company, and a public information officer for five different government agencies. Lee's poems have appeared in Tupelo Press, Slipstream, Nimrod, The New Guard, The Lowestoft Chronicle, Writer's Digest, The California Quarterly, The New England Anthology of Poets, Poets Against the War, and many other journals and anthologies. He was awarded the 2012 Fischer Prize and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and four Best of the Net Awards. He is the founder and host of the online poetry-meditation community Tuesday Poetry Practice. He lives in Santa Fe.

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