ROCHESTER, Mich., July 19, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ — The Detroit News headline for Monday, July 21, 1969, reads, “Footprints on the Moon!” I can still vividly recall watching it happen on black and white TV, as a teenager, along with my family and the many millions around the world. It fired my young…
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Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China
Book VI of The Parliament of Poets: An Epic Poem, now available:
BOOK VI, THE ARGUMENT:
“After an arduous journey from Bagan, Burma, up over Lhasa, Tibet to Dunhuang, China, Sun Wukong, the Persona’s able guide, having traveled a different route with Xuanzang, sets down before the Mogao Caves. From there, Sun Wukong takes the Persona to Chang-an, where Du Fu leads him up the many stairs of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Bai Juyi lifts him up to Mt. Tai and the Azure Clouds, imbibing the beverage of the Three Vinegar Drinkers, savoring its harmonizing nature. Heading east, into the rising sun, past the Kingdom of Silla, ancient name of Korea, to the mountains of Lake Biwa, where Basho and Saigyo rested from their long journeys. Like much of Japan, the view of the lake has changed since Basho was interred at the Temple of Gichu-ji on its southern shore. Basho teaches the Persona the oneness of his vision, a Vinegar Drinker in his own way. Saigyo lifts the Persona back to his great metaphor, the moon.”
“In pre-dawn darkness I awoke, realizing
where I was, slipping away under the grove
to the riverside, leaving Sun Wukong
who seemed asleep in a tree above me…”
https://books.fglaysher.com/The-Parliament-of-Poets-An-Epic-Poem-Book-VI-Book-VI.htm
For further pictures of the Mogao Caves, see the ones I took in 1994: Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China
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Frederick Glaysher, June 21, 2012
BOOK V Summer Serialization is now available.
BOOK V, THE ARGUMENT:
“An old man welcomes the Persona to Angkor Wat, Cambodia, guiding him across the bridge and through and around the galleries. Bayon. The Killing Fields. Bagan, Burma, Valley of a Thousand Temples. Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, ferries the Persona over Tibet to Dunhuang in the far northwest of China. ”
A rustle and a parting of leaves, an old man
stepped out of the jungle, a little frail,
thin and short, walked toward me, saying,
“Ah, so you are the Poet of the Moon.”
https://books.fglaysher.com/
BOOK I, along with the Preface and Introduction, is a FREE DOWNLOAD at https://
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Final Touches to Book III, June 21, 2012
Book IV of The Parliament of Poets: An Epic Poem is now available:
BOOK IV, THE ARGUMENT
“Beyond in medias res, Tagore guides the Persona to India, to the ashram of the sage and epic poet Vyasa in the Himalayan foothills; to the field of Kurukshetra; and, in sight of Mt Kailash, Shiva Nataraja. Kabir. The epic struggles of the Ramayana. Hanuman carries the Persona to Angkor Wat in Cambodia.”
https://books.fglaysher.com/The-Parliament-of-Poets-An-Epic-Poem-Book-IV-Book-IV.htm
The summer serialization has essentially become the eighth draft. I know Milton published a revised second edition several years after the first, as many writers do and have. For me, the words keep coming, though on a noticeably more focused level of precision of word choice and detail, mostly small touches, some more lines here and there, a sharper characterization, nuance. The flood of ideas for incidents and scenes, foreshadowing and expansion, development, has seemed to wane, or, rather, I’ve moved beyond it, having that down on paper. I believe it’s done, though, and this serialization fits what Dickens and other writers used the method for, to give readers who are interested the opportunity to be the first to read a book and to participate to some extent in its final evolution and development, contribute to it, a sense of the author’s own involvement in and excitement at a new creation.
Perhaps I’ve found a way to revive serialization in the Post-Gutenberg Age. I don’t know of anyone else who has tried this. It simply occurred to me suddenly in late May. I remember thinking about The New York Times making first chapters available during the last decade or so, and Amazon’s Kindle Singles program, which is largely popular schlock and talking-head non-fiction. Charles Dickens and all the grand old magazines of the 19th Century came to mind with a flash of insight. I’m quite encouraged by the results and reaction and intend to carry through on my pledge to my readers to serialize the entire epic poem. There’s a Web 2.0 quality about the way the serialization is unfolding.
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