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Cold Heart Thawing: The Zen Poetry of Do Chong-An Anthology of Poetry about Living in the Modern World

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And you thought zen poetry had to be about dew drops and frogs jumping into a pond... As the title justfully points to these wonderful poems deal with such familiar subjects as falling in love and out of love, leaving, working, getting angry, getting over it, living life every day and waking up in the process.
Their universal appeal reside in that there is a bit of all of us in each of them. No matter who and what you are, no matter where you live, these heartfelt and intimate expressions of the poet's heart will find a way to connect with your own heart... and hopefully jumpstart it's own thawing.

This book, as the title suggests, has a range of temperatures, from the cold showers of Zen perception to the warm arms of a lover. The introduction contains a very illuminating conversation on poetry between the author and a Korean Zen Master, who answers the question of how he writes by saying "this moment appears, then write a poem." The author of Cold Heart Thawing does just that, writing poems on the go, in airplanes, cars, temples, restaurants and offices. There are love poems, travel poems, haikus, Zen practice poems, even freeway poems. But no matter what subject a poem is about, there is always a direction to the language, always an anchor that ties any abstraction or high-minded idea to this world we live in, this physical body. This is American Zen poetry at its best, with the pulsing, vibrant roots of Kerouac and Ginsberg not too far beneath the surface.
If you're a Zen student, this book will be a delight; if you've only heard of Zen, this book will be an eye-opener; if you've never heard of Zen, don't worry--it's just damn good poetry.

I came to Buddhism hoping I would learn to quiet my mind but also believing, regretfully, that I would learn how not to feel either. This wonderful book, which I picked up on my first visit to my Zen Center, of free verse on all aspects of life, helped to show me that without feeling deeply, loving greatly, and living fully, we cannot awaken. As Natalie Goldberg puts it so well, no matter how peaceful and present we become, we are human beings with feelings; we are not ice bricks. Whether or not one is following a Buddhist path, these poems are not to be missed. Do Chong's poems are a delight to all hearts on the path of Life.

This book, as the title suggests, has a range of temperatures, from the cold showers of Zen perception to the warm arms of a lover. The introduction contains a very illuminating conversation on poetry between the author and a Korean Zen Master, who answers the question of how he writes by saying "this moment appears, then write a poem." The author of Cold Heart Thawing does just that, writing poems on the go, in airplanes, cars, temples, restaurants and offices. There are love poems, travel poems, haikus, Zen practice poems, even freeway poems. But no matter what subject a poem is about, there is always a direction to the language, always an anchor that ties any abstraction or high-minded idea to this world we live in, this physical body. This is American Zen poetry at its best, with the pulsing, vibrant roots of Kerouac and Ginsberg not too far beneath the surface.
If you're a Zen student, this book will be a delight; if you've only heard of Zen, this book will be an eye-opener; if you've never heard of Zen, don't worry--it's just damn good poetry.