Poetry. In 1974, author James P. Lenfestey came upon the book Cold Mountain: 100 Poems of the T'ang Dynasty Poet Han-Shan, translated by Burton Watson, and it cured his warts. It also turned out to be the voice he had "missed" all his life. For the first and only time in his writing life, Lenfestey began to "write back" to another author. The result thirty-three years later is this collection of one hundred poems, inspired by the form and sensibility of that 1,200-year-old Chinese hermit, yet brimming with Lenfestey's own humor, wisdom, insight, and delight in language. Titles such as "Han-Shan is the Cure for Warts," "Thinking of Sex Like the Chinese," and "Oracle Bones" provide a glimpse into Lenfestey's poetic landscape. This book is dedicated to poetic translator Burton Watson, eighty-one, whom Lenfestey visited in Tokyo on a pilgrimage to China to pay homage to Han-Shan at his hermit cave.

Author City: Minneapolis, MN USA

After a career in academia, advertising and journalism as an editorial writer at the Minneapolis StarTribune, where he won several Page One awards for excellence, Lenfestey has published poetry, reviews and articles, plus a book of essays. Lenfestey is co-founder of the Ojai Poetry Festival in Ojai, CA. He also chairs the Literary Witnesses poetry program in Minneapolis. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife, the political writer Susan Lenfestey. They have four children and four grandchildren.