Ninja Press

Burn Down the Zendo

In these incisive poems by Michael Hannon, the poet juggles the nature of being and not being while simultaneously traversing the shaky quicksand that defines the landscape between the conscious mind and the human heart.

Each text page, from the opening fly to the last poem, is inhabited by an enso or empty circle. The enso, an iconic image in Zen Buddhist Art, can mean many things: everything, nothing, unity, the moon or even a rice cake. In this text, the enso grows in size on each subsequent page, giving the reader the impression of passing through the center of the enso to the other side. The book structure is modeled after ledger books or chomen, in common use throughout Japan particularly during the Edo period (1603-1868). These long, slender account books were sewn in the stab binding style at one short end and kept handy by hanging the book on the wall from its sewn end. "Burn Down the Zendo" comes with its own nail so that it can be hung on the wall as well.