Tag Archives: Red Pine

Exile In Paradise just in time for the Chinese New Year

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Year of the Canine, 4715

Exile In Paradise “is alive with details to coax our attention, urge our sensitivity to the present.   Little happens while everything happens. . .Poems arise from the mists of west county. . .Only nature and the moment exist.”
—Robert Feuer,  Sonoma County Gazette
(read the entire review in the Sonoma County Gazette)

November, 2017~$16.00~paper~6×9~ISBN 978-0-9840310-5-4

The poems of Exile In Paradise are derived from a lifelong appreciation of classical Chinese poetry. This selection by Pat Nolan marks an almost fifty year creative engagement with Asian literature in translation. Chinese poetry is image rich and largely dependent for its overall effect on the juxtaposition of these images in a discontinuous thread that is not unlike the successive frames of a film. Each of the poems finds its origin in a line translated from an ancient Chinese poet. Although removed by degrees of separation from the originals in time and language, their impulse remains the same: to call up the perceptual as a song of celebration in sacred engagement with the world.

More Praise for Exile In Paradise

“Nolan has given Solitude, itself, a voice in this rich lyric of nature.  A luminosity of flickering bursts pause and magnify now moments of being alive.  His quotidian soaks us with its presence.  His lines trace the air.”
—Maureen Owen, author of Erosion’s Pull and Edges of Water

“Reading these poems, I feel like I’m walking down a village lane somewhere in China, beyond the reach of the emperor’s minions, and every door I walk by, someone invites me in for a cup of wine. At this rate, I don’t think I’ll ever make it out of here, and why should I?”
—Bill Porter (Red Pine), translator, author of Finding Them Gone: Visiting China’s Poets from the Past

Pat Nolan has lived in silent cunning exile along the Russian River in Northern California for over forty years.  His poetry, prose and translations have appeared in numerous literary magazines and anthologies in North America, Europe and Asia.  He has worked as a bartender, rock band manager, trail crew grunt, radio DJ, janitor, preschool teacher, and emergency dispatcher.  The author of three novels and over a dozen poetry books, he is also publisher of Nualláin House, Publishers and maintains the literary blog for The New Black Bart Poetry Society.

Exile In Paradise
November, 2017
$16.00~paper~100 pages~6×9~ISBN 978-0-9840310-5-4

is available exclusively from the publisher
(locally at Many Rivers Books & Tea
Sebastopol, CA)
Go to How To Order for details

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Exile In Paradise FREE SHIPPING

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Praise for Exile In Paradise

“Nolan has given Solitude, itself, a voice in this rich lyric of nature.  A luminosity of flickering bursts pause and magnify now moments of being alive.  His quotidian soaks us with its presence.  His lines trace the air.”
—Maureen Owen, author of Erosion’s Pull and Edges of Water

“Reading these poems, I feel like I’m walking down a village lane somewhere in China, beyond the reach of the emperor’s minions, and every door I walk by, someone invites me in for a cup of wine. At this rate, I don’t think I’ll ever make it out of here, and why should I?”
—Bill Porter (Red Pine), translator, author of Finding Them Gone: Visiting China’s Poets from the Past

 

The poems of Exile In Paradise are derived from a lifelong appreciation of classical Chinese poetry. This selection by Pat Nolan marks an almost fifty year creative engagement with Asian literature in translation. Chinese poetry is image rich and largely dependent for its overall effect on the juxtaposition of these images in a discontinuous thread that is not unlike the successive frames of a film. Each of the poems finds its origin in a line translated from an ancient Chinese poet. Although removed by degrees of separation from the originals in time and language, their impulse remains the same: to call up the perceptual as a song of celebration in sacred engagement with the world.

Pat Nolan has lived in silent cunning exile along the Russian River in Northern California for over forty years.  His poetry, prose and translations have appeared in numerous literary magazines and anthologies in North America, Europe and Asia.  He has worked as a bartender, rock band manager, trail crew grunt, radio DJ, janitor, preschool teacher, and emergency dispatcher.  The author of three novels and over a dozen poetry books, he is also publisher of Nualláin House, Publishers and maintains this literary blog.

Failed in Letters Happy in Life

“Cherishing my ineptness I’m carefree to the end”
enjoying a little peace cup of herb tea cold
attentive to the sound of the eaves overflowing
after a rush of late winter rain passes through
where I have gone wrong fills many notebooks
file cabinets bulging with personal hyperbole
here mistake after mistake accumulates like dust
documents of my timeless imperfection

FREE SHIPPING
~offer has been extended through November 15th, 2017~
FREE SHIPPING

Exile In Paradise
November, 2017
$16.00~paper~100 pages~6×9~ISBN 978-0-9840310-5-4

is only available from the publisher
Go to How To Order for details

Exile In Paradise now available for preorder

Poetry, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Exile In Paradise
by Pat Nolan
will be available early November, 2017
Order before October 31st, 2017 and get free shipping
(see How To Order for details)

 

 

ISBN 978-0-9840310-5-4~ 6×9~ paper~100 pages~$16

The poems of Exile In Paradise are derived from a lifelong appreciation of classical Chinese poetry. This selection by Pat Nolan marks an almost fifty year creative engagement with Asian literature in translation. Chinese poetry is image rich and largely dependent for its overall effect on the juxtaposition of these images in a discontinuous thread that is not unlike the successive frames of a film. Each of the poems finds its origin in a line translated from an ancient Chinese poet. Although removed by degrees of separation from the originals in time and language, their impulse remains the same: to call up the perceptual as a song of celebration in sacred engagement with the world.

Praise for Exile In Paradise

“Nolan has given Solitude, itself, a voice in this rich lyric of nature.  A luminosity of flickering bursts pause and magnify now moments of being alive.  His quotidian soaks us with its presence.  His lines trace the air.”  —Maureen Owen, author of Erosion’s Pull and Edges of Water

“Reading these poems, I feel like I’m walking down a village lane somewhere in China, beyond the reach of the emperor’s minions, and every door I walk by, someone invites me in for a cup of wine. At this rate, I don’t think I’ll ever make it out of here, and why should I?” —Bill Porter (Red Pine), translator, author of Finding Them Gone: Visiting China’s Poets from the Past

 

The Hand of an Old Friend

“Day’s late glazing rays already deep in the yard”

as a bee in amber I’m captured by a rich light

faint breeze rustles bamboo grove half in shadows

that sense of well being so fleeting visits again after

days of feeling like someone’s standing on my heart

that heaviness relieved as Autumn’s orange glare

warms my shoulder like the hand of an old friend

 

Autumn, 2017: Exile In Paradise

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Coming from
Nualláin House, Publishers

Exile In Paradise

by Pat Nolan
Autumn of 2017

The poems of Exile In Paradise are derived from a lifelong appreciation of Chinese poetry. Originally published as a selection in limited edition by Bamboo Leaf Studio in 2010, this further iteration of eighty poems by Pat Nolan marks an almost fifty year creative engagement in comparative literature with Chinese prosody.  Chinese poetry is image rich and largely dependent for its overall effect on the juxtaposition of these images in a discontinuous thread that is not unlike the successive frames of film.  Each of the poems in Exile In Paradise finds its origin in a line translated from an ancient Chinese poet.  The body of the poem consists of an improvisation from that line with the aim of using elements of Chinese prosody such as parataxis and parallelism while being cognizant that Chinese nouns have no number, verbs have no tense, few if any conjunctions or prepositional indicators, and that each line contains its own integrity, apart from any overarching discursive intent.  The poems of Exile In Paradise, while clearly original, endeavor to achieve a synthesis between a historically distant culture and the contemporaneous radically different literature of today.

from the introduction to Exile In Paradise by Pat Nolan:
Some fifty years ago a friend loaned or gifted me Kenneth Rexroth’s One Hundred Poems from the Chinese, and as is commonly acknowledged a loaned book is often an unintended gift. The immediacy of these translations rests on their plain spoken imagism.  Undoubtedly much of that is due to Rexroth being of the Williams-Pound tell-it-as-you-see-it persuasion of American poetry.  The gift was my introduction to Chinese poetry.
            What at first was merely idle curiosity has become a lifelong passion leading me to read just about everything I can find relating to Chinese poetry, from Witter Bynner to Mike O’Connor.  Over the years I have assembled a library of anthologies and collections beginning with Arthur Waley’s Translations from the Chinese and Robert Payne’s The White Pony to more current editions complied by translators Burton Watson, Jonathan Chaves, David Hinton and Red Pine (Bill Porter).  With each collection or critical study I learn something new.   

Failed in Letters Happy in Life

“Cherishing my ineptness I’m carefree to the end”

enjoying a little peace cup of herb tea cold

attentive to the sound of the eaves overflowing

after a rush of late winter rain passes through

where I have gone wrong fills many notebooks

file cabinets bulging with personal hyperbole

here mistake after mistake accumulates like dust

documents of my timeless imperfection

Reserve a copy now!