What do you think?
Rate this book
Zen Poems
The appreciation of Zen philosophy and art has become universal, and Zen poetry, with its simple expression of direct, intuitive insight and sudden enlightenment, appeals to lovers of poetry, spirituality, and beauty everywhere. This collection of translations of the classical Zen poets of China, Japan, and Korea includes the work of Zen practitioners and monks as well as scholars, artists, travelers, and recluses, ranging from Wang Wei, Hanshan, and Yang Wanli, to Shinkei, Basho, and Ryokan.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published February 26, 1999
21 people are currently reading
394 people want to read
About the author
Peter Harris
208 books5 followersLibrarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
August 15, 2013
Some favorite lines from second reading:
"I've reached the point of doing away with happiness and sadness--
A white board door swinging to and fro in the breeze."
--Gido Shushin
"Surely there are
worlds where one can live free
of this yearning."
--Shinkei
"To enjoy life's immensity, you do not need many things."
--Ryokan
"I've reached the point of doing away with happiness and sadness--
A white board door swinging to and fro in the breeze."
--Gido Shushin
"Surely there are
worlds where one can live free
of this yearning."
--Shinkei
"To enjoy life's immensity, you do not need many things."
--Ryokan
August 11, 2018
Quite an enjoyable collection, especially since I've taken up meditation. I liked the short lengths of the poems and the haiku nature of them. And there were a handful or two that were really lovely.
December 21, 2020
For the most part, truly inspiring.
July 11, 2012
I'm always reading this book: it's been on my nightstand for quite a while now. I love the feeling of calm that envelops me when reading from this book.. Not a great reader of poetry, I picked this up whilst browsing the bookshelves of Borders. I am so happy I did.
June 4, 2008
A great array of writers, monks, scholars, travelers and Zen practitioners talk of Zen philosophy, art and nature. Reading between the lines, worlds open and I get to escape!
October 24, 2019
Lovely little book given to me by a friend who knew I would love it. She was right! Poetry isn't a genre I am inclined toward, but if I love an author and that author write poetry, then I will venture there. Not much of poetry sticks with me however, for me it is more a read and appreciate in the moment activity and then it is gone.
What I loved about this collection of Zen poems is that they are organized by date range and then by author. Each poem identifies the translator(s) as well and I paid as much attention to the translators as I did to the authors - in terms of the translators really to see how often names came up and who collaborated with whom. Interesting that for a set of poems by the same author, a different translator is named for each poem. So that made me wonder how that worked and whether each poem came from a different book, etc. Piqued my curiosity.
What I also liked about this book is discovering that in a first read through, it is the oldest poems that I liked most. By oldest the first date range is 385-433! This collection features poems by classical Zen poets of China, Japan and Korea. I appreciate the fact that poetry from entirely different cultures and time periods from my experience are so relative and accessible to me.
This one is my favourite - written by Hanshan (8th century - Chinese - Hanshan means Cold Mountain. (translated by Peter Harris) on page 64.
A telling analogy for life and death:
Compare the two of them to water and ice.
Water draws together to become ice,
And ice disperses again to become water.
Whatever has died is sure to be born again;
Whatever is born comes round again to dying.
As ice and water do one another no harm,
So life and death, the two of them, are fine.
Many of the poems chosen for this collection focus on nature and a description of the experience of travel or observation of details of nature (vistas, trees, water, clouds, sounds, changing light, monasteries within nature, temperature, smell) in the present moment of time. I love and appreciate this focus on being in the moment and observing just that as poetry.
At the end of the book is a section called Biographies that contains brief notes about the authors. I liked finding this at the end and not with the poems.
What I loved about this collection of Zen poems is that they are organized by date range and then by author. Each poem identifies the translator(s) as well and I paid as much attention to the translators as I did to the authors - in terms of the translators really to see how often names came up and who collaborated with whom. Interesting that for a set of poems by the same author, a different translator is named for each poem. So that made me wonder how that worked and whether each poem came from a different book, etc. Piqued my curiosity.
What I also liked about this book is discovering that in a first read through, it is the oldest poems that I liked most. By oldest the first date range is 385-433! This collection features poems by classical Zen poets of China, Japan and Korea. I appreciate the fact that poetry from entirely different cultures and time periods from my experience are so relative and accessible to me.
This one is my favourite - written by Hanshan (8th century - Chinese - Hanshan means Cold Mountain. (translated by Peter Harris) on page 64.
A telling analogy for life and death:
Compare the two of them to water and ice.
Water draws together to become ice,
And ice disperses again to become water.
Whatever has died is sure to be born again;
Whatever is born comes round again to dying.
As ice and water do one another no harm,
So life and death, the two of them, are fine.
Many of the poems chosen for this collection focus on nature and a description of the experience of travel or observation of details of nature (vistas, trees, water, clouds, sounds, changing light, monasteries within nature, temperature, smell) in the present moment of time. I love and appreciate this focus on being in the moment and observing just that as poetry.
At the end of the book is a section called Biographies that contains brief notes about the authors. I liked finding this at the end and not with the poems.
June 1, 2022
Some of the poets in this collection are ones that have caught my eye before, so I picked it up and read it in bits in pieces over time. I have no more than a passing interest in things zen, and so, not surprisingly, it wasn't entirely up my alley, but I found a lot that was both interesting and meaningful to me. Those are the poems I happily added to my hand-copied collection.
I don't respond to everything here; not all of it is for me is a better way to phrase it, I suppose. But I found lots to like. I especially enjoy the nature poems--thick forests, mountain paths, rushing streams, and distant temple bells--but I'm almost as fond of the recluse poems--old scholars living in a hut, reading their books of poetry (hmmm...) and tending their gardens (hmmm... again) and drinking wine. (So close! Are there any coffee poems?)
Here's an example of the nature vibe by the poet Hanshan (or "Cold Mountain") with a touch of the recluse in it:
Nice. :)
The other benefit of a collection like this is finding a few more names to track down elsewhere. This book led me to at least half a dozen authors I'll enjoy finding somewhere else. So it's small, and even though I don't love everything it still packs a pretty good punch.
I don't respond to everything here; not all of it is for me is a better way to phrase it, I suppose. But I found lots to like. I especially enjoy the nature poems--thick forests, mountain paths, rushing streams, and distant temple bells--but I'm almost as fond of the recluse poems--old scholars living in a hut, reading their books of poetry (hmmm...) and tending their gardens (hmmm... again) and drinking wine. (So close! Are there any coffee poems?)
Here's an example of the nature vibe by the poet Hanshan (or "Cold Mountain") with a touch of the recluse in it:
Clambering up the Cold Mountain path,
The Cold Mountain trail goes on and on:
The long gorge choked with scree and boulders,
The wide creek, the mist-blurred grass.
The moss is slippery, though there's been no rain
The pine sings, but there's no wind.
Who can leap the world's ties
And sit with me among the white clouds?
Nice. :)
The other benefit of a collection like this is finding a few more names to track down elsewhere. This book led me to at least half a dozen authors I'll enjoy finding somewhere else. So it's small, and even though I don't love everything it still packs a pretty good punch.
April 15, 2021
This is an interesting but unremarkable collection of nature poems. What exactly makes them “Zen” is unclear to me. Any/all of these could fit in the average anthology of Asian poetry. Mostly nature poems, there are some about living a monk’s life. I think the poems about loneliness were the most compelling.
In the "Pound translation" tradition, as I call it, these highly ornate, formal poems that often use an exclusive, literary language are put into prosaic lines of quotidian free verse. If you like this kind of thing, it is a reasonably good set. For me, most of the poems were completely forgotten a minute after I read them.
In the "Pound translation" tradition, as I call it, these highly ornate, formal poems that often use an exclusive, literary language are put into prosaic lines of quotidian free verse. If you like this kind of thing, it is a reasonably good set. For me, most of the poems were completely forgotten a minute after I read them.
March 16, 2021
“All my life too lazy to try and get ahead,
I leave everything to the truth of Heaven.
In my sack three measures of rice,
by the stove one bundle of sticks—
why ask who’s got satori, who hasn’t?
What would I know about that dust, fame and gain?
Rainy nights here in my thatched hut
I stick our my two legs any old way I please.”
Ryokan
Nice collection of Zen poems. I’m not a scholar of Zen poetry, so I can’t speak to that part of the collection. But I really enjoyed it as a palliative for observing and being present.
I leave everything to the truth of Heaven.
In my sack three measures of rice,
by the stove one bundle of sticks—
why ask who’s got satori, who hasn’t?
What would I know about that dust, fame and gain?
Rainy nights here in my thatched hut
I stick our my two legs any old way I please.”
Ryokan
Nice collection of Zen poems. I’m not a scholar of Zen poetry, so I can’t speak to that part of the collection. But I really enjoyed it as a palliative for observing and being present.
July 24, 2025
Who doesn’t like the Everyman Library Pocket Poet series? I wish I owned all the volumes. Great for a bedside table, as well as throwing in a pack while traveling.
And this one, like the others, does not disappoint. I appreciated the ways it uses poetry to teach us about Zen.
My only ask for future editions: can the poet information appear at start of each given poet’s series of poems? Poet information is currently collected as a chapter at end of book. This requires going back and forth while reading the collection.
And this one, like the others, does not disappoint. I appreciated the ways it uses poetry to teach us about Zen.
My only ask for future editions: can the poet information appear at start of each given poet’s series of poems? Poet information is currently collected as a chapter at end of book. This requires going back and forth while reading the collection.
July 12, 2017
3 1/2 stars
March 3, 2018
A book of Zen poetry from many different writers. It is a calming book to read.
October 2, 2019
Beautiful, soothing, makes me smile.
December 19, 2019
Great collection of beautiful zen poetry including greats like Ryokan.
January 21, 2021
The poems are really beautiful but there were way too many and personally I’m not a fan of reading one page a day kind of books.
January 4, 2022
Loved it. 4+ ⭐
February 24, 2023
Each morning before mediating
I read a few of these
poems.
Don’t you wish you were
Enlightened
like me?
I read a few of these
poems.
Don’t you wish you were
Enlightened
like me?
February 24, 2023
I loved this book. My favorites were those from Ryokan, which appear near the end.
November 5, 2024
Some pure gems.
Other, ordinary ramblings.
Other, ordinary ramblings.
November 25, 2025
A few lines in and I’m already transported: sitting by a pond under the moonlight, bamboo around me, a mountain monastery just beyond.
Currently reading
July 30, 2011A great introductory book with great poems from nearly every era of Zen poetry. The current edition is beautifully bound and makes for a great book to leave out or to be browsed for just a few minutes.
November 6, 2012
"Wine is the best reward of merit." "Don't Read Books" is a new favorite poem!
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews