These are lyric poems set in China by a leading American poet, Steven Schroeder, who has lived, studied, and taught for many years in China.

Description: This book is an attempt to critically embrace a tradition--a culture--in which the author was formed and against which he has often found himself in resistance, using academic disciplines in which he is well versed but about which he is deeply suspicious. This book began to come together as a book in a series of lectures on the history of Western thought at Shenzhen University in the People's Republic of China, an opportunity to cultivate disciplined criticism that might afford a second look at traditions behind the West which are being embraced all too quickly. In a time of...

Grappling with the challenge of Wallace Stevens' masterpiece, "Thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird," Steve Schroeder and Sou Vai Keng combine the poet's craft, philosophical ways of thought and the practice of Sinology to reconfigure and metamorphose Laotse's wisdom book into a poem in totally natural English. The product speaks to our world today with its maddened consumerism, war as national habit, the eternal questions of death and creativity, and the struggle to be rather than just exist. This elegant and beautiful little book helps us understand some of the eternal questions-and some...

Four Truths is not a traditional scholarly work. It consists of three short stories and a verse drama built around the four noble truths of Buddhism--each followed by a prose reflection in the form of a series of theses. The text is complemented by thirteen images from a series of ink brush paintings done by Macao artist Debby Sou Vai Keng in response to the book. It is an invitation to conversation rather than a systematic philosophical or theological argument--though it is an invitation in the scholastic tradition of academic theses that will appeal to students of comparative religion and...

'Red Stones' is a collection of poems by internationally-known poet Jonas Zdanys. In this book you will find Zdanys' best writing yet, 12-line lyric poems that speak clearly through vivid multi-sensual imagery and the textured language of a master poet. Working with the poet in producing this book is artist Steven Schroeder, who presents brilliant as well as subtle color in paintings that sometimes fall between the abstract and the literal and offer both beauty and something to ponder. Added to the collaborative art of poet and painter is the book itself, designed by Regina Schroeder, so this...