Zen Telegrams: 79 Picture Poems

by Paul Reps

This book of Zen poetry and art blends simple, haiku-like poetry with bold minimalist ink brush drawings.

The unique books of Paul Reps have attracted countless readers since they were first published in the 1950s. His classic Zen Flesh, Zen Bones remains one of the most popular books on Zen ever published in English.

Zen Telegrams is a collection of Reps's picture-poems," works of calligraphic art and minimalist poetry that first fascinated Japanese,then attracted Western viewers. A lesser artist trying to combine English text and Eastern art might have failed, but Reps was a rare talent, accomplished in a wide variety of literary genres and art forms.

American by birth, Reps lived in many countries and traveled throughout the world. He seemed to know no national boundaries, and his unique work appeals to a universal audience.

Genres: Poetry, Art, Zen

101 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1900

Reviews

[Sanjay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its a set of Zen paintings by Paul Reps.

[Alice Teets · Rating 1 out of 5]

Obviously, I am not Zen-like.

[C.B. Wentworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard to put a label on Paul Reps' creations. He pairs simplistic ink paintings with fragments of verse that sometimes qualify as haiku. The result is an interesting array of meditations and statements that are often thought provoking. Worth a read for those looking for something that's a little unorthodox, yet traditional at the same time.

[Ashley Lambert-Maberly · Rating 1 out of 5]

To borrow a British expression, are they taking the piss? Neither the "pictures" nor the "poems" nor the "picture poems" are anything worthy of comment or attention, and the fact that this book went into myriad printings (my copy was the 10th) is a sad testimony to people's unwillingness to read: they can down 100 poems (of 1 to 4 lines each) in five minutes and be pleased that they read a book, sigh.

It's because of books like this that I have my Beastly Books Blog where at least I can vent a bit:
Poetry? No-etry ...

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).

[Sam Jayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are picture poems by some cracker in the fifties who got all zen in the japan and wrote books in Japanese about old zen texts and then started to have shows with these "zen telegrams" hanging all over and it's really fun and smart and if you run into this book just get it.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

there need not be words
for there to be poems




O

h o w
brief
all
turns

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cherished book I've had since high school.