What Book!?: Buddha Poems from Beat to Hiphop [Paperback]

Gary Gach (Editor), Peter Coyote (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1998

Now in its third printing, this visionary project received the 1999 American Book Award. Topics included the Three Jewels, pacifism, engagement, innovation, nature, song, and silence. What Book? contains forms ranging from picture poems and calligraphy, guided meditations, and rambling journals, to conceptual and performance art, arias, and haiku.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This enigmatically titled anthology offers numerous delights and valuable evidence that great poetic variety, from haiku and witty two-liners to page-long discourses, has by now given distinct expression to Western Buddhism. The immigrant Buddhist teachers of the past century would indeed be amazed to see the range here. Yet, Gach's collection is also a disappointment, confused in its presentation and insufficient in its documentation. The goofy title, chosen out of admitted "laziness," is slim in implication?Gach misses the pun on "wat," Thai for Buddhist temple. The subtitle is worse, since this is not a collection about the Buddha as such. The collection also omits some classic poems like Gary Snyder's "The Blue Sky" and Jack Kerouac's "Mexico City Blues." Nor are the selections explained historically, linguistically or geographically. While the book's lighthearted presentation and eclectic inclusions will make it a valuable companion for devotees and sympathizing "night-stand Buddhists," Gach settles for scattershot idiosyncrasy and offers only casual insight into Buddhism and poetry.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The movement of Eastern religions to the West has been one of the most remarkable phenomena of the 20th century. Beginning in the mid-1950s and continuing into the late 1990s, the influence of Buddhism (along with other Eastern religions) has been evident, perhaps most strongly in the arts and particularly strongly in contemporary American poetry. Here is an enormous anthology of poetry celebrating that phenomenon. Gach has collected poems from a broad variety of sources?almost too broad?selecting works by greats like Allen Ginsberg, Mary Oliver, and Gary Snyder and mixing them with poems by children, elders, first-time poets, and Buddhist teachers such as Thich Nhat Hanh and Thomas Merton. Add poems by composers/performers Laurie Anderson, John Cage, and Yoko Ono, and the result is a splendid, flavorful and aromatic stew. One could argue that the book is way too long and that the editor has included too many mediocre poems. But the freshness and authenticity of even the most inexpertly written pieces is appealing. Highly recommended.?Judy Clarence, California State Univ. Lib., Hayward
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Parallax Press; First Edition edition (May 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0938077929
• ISBN-13: 978-0938077923
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 4.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #523,697 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EDITOR'S CORRECTION & UPDATE, September 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: What Book!?: Buddha Poems from Beat to Hiphop (Paperback)

I am the editor of this anthology.

CORRECTION: The title is not WHAT BOOK - the title is WHAT BOOK!?

Exclamation mark, question mark.

And an UPDATE: it received the American Book Award this year. This is the greatest honor.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars but where's the hiphop?, February 10, 2005

By 

Richard Wells (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: What Book!?: Buddha Poems from Beat to Hiphop (Paperback)

These are poems that capture that shimmering moment in time and allow it to illuminate our lives. They are the poems, mostly small, that come from perfect attention - the result of a moment, rendered timeless.

The book also comes with some wonderful tips for writers from Allen Ginsberg.

The single problem: I could find the Beat, but where's the Hip Hop?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars COOL poetry on a theme, May 22, 2002

By 

Andrea D. Graham "andreainla" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Book!?: Buddha Poems from Beat to Hiphop (Paperback)

Even my friends who think poetry is boring and ponderous and Buddha a smiling statue (thanks probably to some stodgy professors 20 years ago) couldn't put this book down when they spotted it on my coffee table. With a sly sense of humor and enormous knowledge of his subject, Gary Gach has taken a single (and often misunderstood)theme and compiled a "panorama" of examples that give life and texture to Buddha and Buddhism.

What he has done is kind of like a hundred talented photographers, using radically different techniques, having their crack at one single image or subject, each in his or her own way. Uniting dozens of other voices, Gach has given texture and spirit to his subject.

What surprised me the most is that this book never gets old -- I read it over and over again, sometimes a page, sometimes a poem at a time.