{"title":"James P Lenfestey","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"seeking-the-cave-book-james-p-lenfestey-9781571313492","title":"Seeking the Cave","description":"Born and raised with the kind of expectations that often accompany privilege, Jim Lenfestey approached his thirtieth birthday in a state of acute anxiety. A young family and a demanding work life on one hand, and a burgeoning love for poetry on the other.  When an independent bookseller discerns Lenfestey's difficulties, and prescribes for a remedy the poems of a Chinese hermit named Han Shan, Lenfestey's life is changed forever. After \"swallowing the poems like aspirin\" for the next thirty years, a spirited embrace of this ancient poet called Cold Mountain--the poet he has come to see as a guiding light in his life--prompts Lenfestey to travel to China on a pilgrim's search for his cave.  Along the way, this quest takes our author first to Tokyo, where he visits with the foremost translator and scholar of eastern poetry, Burton Watson, and from there across China, from the enormous chanting hall of ten thousand Buddhas in Bailin Temple to the birthplace of Confucius.  A singular combination of travel writing, memoir, translation, and poetry, Seeking the Cave is both deeply personal and universally illuminating. \"Uniting our brief literary life with the ancient richness of Chinese culture\" (Robert Bly), this extraordinary book evokes the transformative power of poetry, and the way it breathes meaning into our lives.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49522017108241,"sku":"GOR013355255","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50392922521873,"sku":"CIN1571313494G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51700580811025,"sku":"GOR014367805","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52751541764369,"sku":"NIN9781571313492","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52820719304977,"sku":"NLS9781571313492","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1571313494.jpg?v=1751022824"},{"product_id":"seeking-the-cave-book-james-p-lenfestey-9781571313461","title":"Seeking the Cave","description":"In this transformative book, award-winning poet and essayist James Lenfestey makes an epic journey across the world to find the Cold Mountain Cave, a location long believed to exist only in myths and the ancient home of his idol, Han Shan, author of the Cold Mountain poems. Lenfestey's voyage takes him from the Midwestern United States to Tokyo to a road trip across the expanse of China with frequent excursions to the country's rich historical and cultural landmarks. As he makes his way to the cave, Lenfestey learns more than history or geography; he discovers his identity as a writer and a poet. Interspersed with poems by both the author and Han Shan, Seeking the Cave will appeal to lovers of poetry and travel narrative alike.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49932430901521,"sku":"CIN157131346XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52821064384785,"sku":"NLS9781571313461","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/157131346X.jpg?v=1751181249"},{"product_id":"marriage-book-book-james-p-lenfestey-9781571314925","title":"A Marriage Book","description":"From James P. Lenfestey, a collection of poems that lends delicacy and gentle humor to durable, long-lasting love.  Writing love poems fifty years into a marriage is no easy task: \"If he exaggerates his love, she'll know . . . And if his desire for her is undiminished, \/ who would believe?\" But in A Marriage Book, Lenfestey meets his own challenge with aplomb. These poems drop readers into the rich, textured world of one couple's enduring intimacy, from the warmth of a bedroom occupied by two to squabbles over miscommunications and crumbs in the kitchen.  As the marriage (and the Book) transition into parenthood, Lenfestey illuminates the equally stalwart wonder of observing one's children as they age and develop. Paternal love persists, and is even fed by, watching his children argue, suffer their own mistakes, and roar horrible breath at breakfast. So much poetry is about storms, \/ bruised fruit, locusts eating everything,\" he writes. \"This poem is about a harvest that satisfies.\"  A Marriage Book is a collection that essences the magic from the household quotidian, creating a technicolor portrait of a vibrant and dynamic family.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49937456922897,"sku":"CIN157131492XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51037781688593,"sku":"NIN9781571314925","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52820756136209,"sku":"NLS9781571314925","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/157131492X.jpg?v=1751374358"},{"product_id":"if-bees-are-few-book-james-p-lenfestey-9780816698066","title":"If Bees Are Few","description":"It is said there are 20,000 species of bees, a genus 50 million years old, but in the fertile imagination of the world’s poets, there is no beginning or end to the bee buzz. Virgil wrote of bees, as did Rumi, Shakespeare, Burns, Coleridge, Emerson, Mandelstam, Neruda, Whitman—a lyrical hum heard well into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in poems by Yeats, Lawrence, Plath, Mary Oliver, Carol Ann Duffy, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Sherman Alexie, among many others.  The title of this book is from Emily Dickinson: To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, \/ One clover, and a bee, \/ And revery. \/ The revery alone will do \/ If bees are few. Her conclusion resonates with a terrible poignancy today, as bees are indeed becoming few—hives collapsing, wild species disappearing. Amid this crisis, the poems collected here speak with a quiet urgency of a world lost if bees were to fall silent.  If anyone can save the bees, it is entomologist Dr. Marla Spivak and the hive of bee scientists and beekeepers at the Bee Lab at the University of Minnesota. A portion of the author proceeds from this anthology will be donated to support research at the Bee Lab.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50363295105297,"sku":"CIN0816698066G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51102803460369,"sku":"GOR011785960","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0816698066.jpg?v=1764845547"},{"product_id":"cartload-of-scrolls-book-james-p-lenfestey-9780977945856","title":"A Cartload of Scrolls","description":"\u003cp\u003eThese aren't translations of Han-Shan's poems; they're \u003ci\u003etransmissions\u003c\/i\u003e of his spirit --Eric Utne, founder of \u003ci\u003eUtne Reader\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI love this book --Jim Moore\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1974, author James P. Lenfestey came upon the book \u003ci\u003eCold Mountain: 100 Poems of the T'ang Dynasty Poet Han-Shan\u003c\/i\u003e, translated by Burton Watson, and it cured his warts. It also turned out to be the voice he had missed all his life. For the first and only time in his writing life, Lenfestey began to write back to another author. The result thirty-three years later is this collection of one hundred poems, inspired by the form and sensibility of that 1,200-year-old Chinese hermit, yet brimming with Lenfestey's own humor, wisdom, insight, and delight in language. Titles such as Han-Shan is the Cure for Warts, Thinking of Sex Like the Chinese, and Oracle Bones provide a glimpse into Lenfestey's poetic landscape. This book is dedicated to poetic translator Burton Watson, eighty-one, whom Lenfestey visited in Tokyo on a pilgrimage to China to pay homage to Han-Shan at his hermit cave.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eJames P. Lenfestey\u003c\/b\u003e has worked as a college literature instructor, alternative school administrator, salesman, marketing communications professional, and editorial writer for the Minneapolis \u003ci\u003eStar Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e, where he won several Page One Awards. He has published three previous collections of poetry and a collection of personal essays, \u003ci\u003eThe Urban Coyote: Howlings on Family, Community and the Search for Peace and Quiet\u003c\/i\u003e (Nodin Press). He coordinates poetry festivals and a reading series in California, Michigan, and Minneapolis, where he and his wife currently reside.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50370333442321,"sku":"CIN0977945855G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51010003829009,"sku":"NIN9780977945856","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0977945855.jpg?v=1750981378"},{"product_id":"urban-coyote-book-james-p-lenfestey-9780931714863","title":"Urban Coyote","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50373605490961,"sku":"CIN0931714869G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0931714869.jpg?v=1750916138"},{"product_id":"time-remaining-book-james-p-lenfestey-9781571315748","title":"Time Remaining","description":"An exuberant collection celebrating the body and the soul of language, wringing delights and amazements out of the latter years of life.  In his seventh decade and seventh full length collection, poet James P. Lenfestey dazzles with a suite of odes to parts of the body—heart, belly, ankle, teeth, ears, and more—and astonishment at the powers of language: “the sound of ‘n,’” our ancient alphabet, “the terror of publishing.” Known for his exuberant Chinese-style lyrics, now inspired by Neruda’s cascading Elemental Odes, Lenfestey praises Hewlett and Packard, Bruce Springsteen, “the language of crow,” fruit flies, and cabbages while recalling the “forgiveness of the Catbird” and random acts of kindness, all with his superb ear for sound, rhythm, and leaping figurative language.  Rhythmic, jovial, and eminently approachable, this collection embraces the Cetacean mind and the fearless left hand. Here, Lenfestey writes love songs to the world “as it really is: bizarro, curious, inelegant, unclean, \/ unfaithful, filled with delight.”","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51036985229585,"sku":"NIN9781571315748","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51216061038865,"sku":"NGR9781571315748","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52516803707153,"sku":"NLS9781571315748","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1571315748.jpg?v=1751308634"},{"product_id":"east-bluff-book-james-p-lenfestey-9781945063282","title":"East Bluff","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51057689526545,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51057691754769,"sku":"NIN9781945063282","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52819450528017,"sku":"CIN1945063289G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1945063289.jpg?v=1750868630"},{"product_id":"thirteen-september-moons-book-james-p-lenfestey-9781646621033","title":"Thirteen September Moons","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52539130872081,"sku":"NLS9781646621033","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52752826564881,"sku":"NIN9781646621033","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781646621033.jpg?v=1760684347"},{"product_id":"coyote-and-the-thunderbird-book-james-p-lenfestey-9781962834711","title":"Coyote and the Thunderbird","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53479617986833,"sku":"NLS9781962834711","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53521081499921,"sku":"NIN9781962834711","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781962834711.jpg?v=1782874913"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-james-p-lenfestey.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}