Bushido: The Virtues of Rei and Makoto [Paperback]

Arthur J. Stewart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2005

Essays and poems influenced by two of the seven Bushido virtues - Rei (respect) and Makoto (truth and sincerity).

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A profoundly original concept, steeped in traditional wisdom, this gorgeous volume is life-enhancing." --Marilyn Kallet, author of Circe, After Hours, August 22, 2005

About the Author

Art Stewart is an ecologist, senior scientist, essayist and poet. His first collection of poems, Rough Ascension and Other Poems of Science, was published in 2003.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Celtic Cat Publishing (August 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965895068
• ISBN-13: 978-0965895064
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,150,565 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Art Stewart is an aquatic ecologist, science educator, essayist and poet. In addition to authoring scientific articles and technical reports, his poetry has been published in various anthologies and a dozen different journals, including Eclectic Literary Forum, New Millennium Writings, Lullwater Review, and the Journal of the American Medical Association. His first book, Rough Ascension and Other Poems of Science, was released through Celtic Cat Publishing in 2003; his second book, Bushido: The Virtues of Rei and Makoto, was released in 2005. Circle, Turtle, Ashes, his third book, was published in 2010. He was a 2009 winner of the Wilma Dykeman Prize for essay writing, and is a Tennessee Poetry Prize winner.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Illuminates the dark and shaky paths connecting science, poetry and life, September 13, 2005

By 

Gregory Wallace (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bushido: The Virtues of Rei and Makoto (Paperback)

In Bushido: The Virtues of Rei and Makoto, scientist and poet Art Stewart attempts something very new. He uses poetry to show the connections between real life, science, philosophy and human responsibility to the planet and each other. Obviously this book is difficult to summarize because of its wide and deep scope, but the author actually makes it all come together in a profoundly simple and yet important way. Imagine traces of William Carlos Williams and John Updike as well as Albert Einstein with a soundtrack by the Indigo Girls and Dave Matthews Band.

Artfully, the poems are all related in their focus on Bushido (the way of the samurai) and most use first-person perspective as one feels that Stewart, with his Peace Corps work, his scientific research and his high school and college teaching experience, has earned the right to be an instructor of modern values and responses to an ever-changing world. Using the concepts of Rei (or respect) and Makoto (truth and sincerity), the author addresses issues from stem cell research to pollution to global warming to overpopulation to teaching evolution in schools.

In "Ghanaian Story", an African man struggles to chop down rainforest to feed his family in what some would say a short-sighted and wasteful display, yet at the same time the African shows respect for life in other ways. The author implies the "if only" present in the African's contradictory behavior.

Most of the poems are seemingly stream-of-consciousness, yet closer inspection reveals their profundity and purpose. Stewart's scientific knowledge is evident, and deftly does he leap from scientific detail and obscurity to common, emotional, raw truth of experience and human intimacy. I gladly recommend this book to anyone interested in the interplay between science, emotion and life.