No Mountain: Improvisations from Han-Shan’s New Home

by Wayne Pounds

These are 49 improvisations from the ancient Chinese poet Han-Shan (aka Cold Mountain) in his new home in Ueno Park, Tokyo, where he has taken up spiritual residence on an island (聖天島) in Shinobazu Pond. In recognition of his new abode Han-Shan has stopped calling himself Cold Mountain. He is now No Mountain. As a man free of spiritual conceit, he discusses Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. He talks about the pond and his island and also comments on current topics-- corporate disasters from the large like the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe and Prime Minister Abe to the small like Tokyo's Drunk Poets. Ueno Wayne, as the present writer styles himself, is Han Shan's amanuensis. He listens and transcribes. That's it folks!

Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 2020

About the author

Wayne Pounds, besides having published a stack of academic essays and monographs, is the perpetrator of five chapbooks of poetry, four books of family history, and a collection of documented narratives about early-day killings in Oklahoma. He was born in Oklahoma and grew up there and in northern California. He began his career as a poet in the 7th grade imitating Ogden Nash and his graduate career in the jungles of Vietnam keeping a low profile. PhDeed at the University of Kansas, 1976. Lived and taught in Japan thirty years, now retired. The attraction of his books may be that he sees American matters from Japan. The books he is willing to own may be found at Amazon.com with this link: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/ent...