Title: Moment to moment : poems of a mountain recluse /
Authors: Budbill, David.; Woodberry Poetry Room (Harvard College Library).
Publisher: Copper Canyon Press,
Year: 1999
Subjects: Mountain life Vermont Poetry.; Zen poetry, American.; Mountain life Poetry; Asia Civilization Poetry.; Vermont Poetry.
Abstract: Alternating between the loveable irrascibility and self-mocking humor reminiscent of the poet Cold Mountain (Han Shan), Budbill's poems view the modern world from the viewpoint of a New England hermit-scholar. Remarkable for their generous spirit, accessibility and biting criticism, these poems present a poet of strong mind and voice.
Contents: What it is like to read the ancients -- How he writes -- Always in these ancient Chinese paintings -- the road to buddhahood -- Thirty years -- Another kind of travel -- Quiet and seldom seen -- North is nowhere -- Stillness, absolute, profound -- How -- Where live -- Nothing much -- When came to Judevine Mountain -- In the ancient tradition -- The progress of ambition -- Like the clouds -- The three goals -- Bathroom reading: after a poem by Han Shan -- Three -- After reading Meng Chaio's "Seeing off Master Tan" -- What would it be like? -- Which of them sees more clearly? -- No trail -- Variation a theme by another recluse who also thought about ambition and the self -- Alone and lonely -- Three decades -- The story of Chi Mu Chian -- Another lie -- As in Ryokan's brushwork -- You false masters of serenity -- The music of my own kind too -- For Wang Wei -- Home -- An unassuming grandeur -- When get depressed -- My fifty-eighth birthday I write two poems: first one: what keeps me here? -- My fifty-eight