Interview: Book is Like a Quick Return to Japan, Poet Says: Eric Paul Shaffer's comments in American Fuji by Sara Backer (The Hololulu Advertiser, 16 June 2002)

Press Release: National Poetry Month 2002: April is the Busiest Month for LDP Poet, Eric Paul Shaffer (25 April 2002)

Press Release: LDP to Publish ‘Textless Translations’ of Ancient Chinese Poet: Living at the Monastery, Working in the Kitchen by Eric Paul Shaffer (1 August 2001)

Reviews  ~  Reviews of Previous Work  ~  Other Titles

Reviews . . .

of Eric Paul Shaffer’s Living at the Monastery, Working in the Kitchen, which was published October 1, 2001:

• “How wonderful to discover these lost works in the last leavings of the Twentieth Century. May their author continue to sweep the kitchens, the courtyards, the shrine halls of his always surprising mind. May we continue to share such delightful detritus. And may it continue to amount to nothing much at all. Thanks for the broom.”

— Bill Porter, author of The Zen Works of Stonehouse, The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain, The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, Road to Heaven,and The Clouds Should Know Me By Now

• “I’ve enjoyed [Shaffer’s] work for years and [his] book is absolutely beautiful and impressive in its range of styles, forms, subjects, and sensibilities.”

— Gerald Locklin, author of Charles Bukowski: A Sure Bet

• “In Living in the Monastery, Working in the Kitchen, Eric Paul Shaffer employs this discerning curmudgeon’s voice with ironic understanding for those who may wish to pursue enlightenment but who must also work to live.... Companion volume to Shaffer’s Portable Planet (2000), this new book reveals Shih-te giving Eastern teachings an irreverent twist even as he disarms us with his struggle to attain a sense of purpose, place, and identity.”

— Cheri Crenshaw, Small Press Review

• “A haunting collection of poems imagined in the voice of Shih-te, an eighth-century Kuo-Ch’ing Monastery cook and janitor (and poet) living in China during the T’ang Dynasty.
  
  Looking for the key to enlightenment? Shih-te, as resurrected skillfully by Shaffer, whispers the secret: look to the commonplace.
  
  A lovely muse.”

— The Boox Review

• “The poetic spirit connects across the centuries. Shaffer’s outside/in, inside/out view is the next best thing to being there.”

— Steve Sanfield, author of Wandering, A New Way, He Smiled to Himself, and A Fall from Grace

• “Once again, Eric Paul Shaffer offers up to us the ‘work of the moment.’ In this new book of poems, he takes on monastic life in ancient China. But don't be confused or misled, these contemporary poems have enough irreverence for all of us.”

— James Taylor III, author of Fresh Leather, Forty Years & 20 Paces

• “These poems — like a strand of black hair in a monastery rice bowl — demand our attention and irreverently remind us that ‘enlightenment’ has nothing to do with purity or perfection. ‘Be human!’ Shaffer bellows.”

— John Kain, author of Cheater’s Paradise

• Poet captures Taoist’s spirit in ‘Monastery’
  

  — Wanda Adams, Honolulu Advertiser

Reviews of Previous Work

Eric Paul Shaffer’s Portable Planet, published in November 2000, received the following notices:

• “Portable Planet is a marvelous book. I’ve been following Shaffer’s work for years and he is on a definitive upward spiral.”

— Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall, Dalva, The Road Home and The Shape of the Journey: New and Selected Poems

• “Portable Planet — reminds me of what poetry is about — clear melody with an easy pleasing pace — plain speech — elegant diction — pictorial — makes each place . . . come alive — Okinawa, Japan, Bali, delta country of California — full of the largely arcane detail that makes up most of Earth life — what do we write for but to say I was here at this time at this place & this is how it struck me — a beautiful book —”

— Albert Saijo, co-author of Trip Trap: Haiku on the Road (with Jack Kerouac and Lew Welch)

• “Eric Paul Shaffer is my favorite poet — more alive than any other so-called living poet. Portable Planet is a masterpiece.”

  — Sara Backer, author of American Fuji

• “Graced by the best from the past, the poet wanders. His poems will take you to places you need to visit.”

— Steve Sanfield, author of Wandering, A New Way, He Smiled to Himself, and A Fall from Grace

• “Eric Paul Shaffer’s Portable Planet demonstrates a nomad’s sense of place around the Pacific Rim.”

  — Magda Cregg, editor of Hey Lew

• “Eric Paul Shaffer’s poems carry us ever inward and out, where particular stones sprout wings, where solid ground is shaken by the nimble fingers of small gods, and the normal everyday ways of life stay blessedly themselves. These poems are portable, they’re the exact same size as the hip pocket of your mind.”

  — John Kain, author of Cheater’s Paradise

• “Complex, paradoxical, and intriguing, this is poetry that makes one quite happy that some writers can’t keep their mouths shut.”

  — Cheri Crenshaw, Fearless Reviews

• “Eric Paul Shaffer is the best poet writing today. Portable Planet liberates American poetry from the stuffiness of the Academy and the silliness of the Slam. Here is a book whistling with fresh air, open vistas, and good humor. Portable Planet should be made into our next National Park, but hurry and get your copy, before the next administration sells it off! If Walt Whitman had looked under his own boot soles, he would have found Eric Paul Shaffer — and Shaffer would have been giving old Walt a hot foot. This book burns!”

  — John P. O’Grady, author of Grave Goods: Essays of a Peculiar Nature

• Poet Explores Meaning of a “Portable Planet”

— Elisabeth Sherwin, The Davis Enterprise

• Island Books: Poetic words to ponder

— Ann M. Sato, Honolulu Advertiser

Other Titles . . .

by Eric Paul Shaffer:

• How I Read Gertrude Stein by Lew Welch, edited by Eric Paul Shaffer (Grey Fox, 1995)
• The Soul Unearthed: Celebrating Wildness and Personal Renewal Through Nature, edited by Cass Adams (J. P. Tarcher, 1996)
• Portable Planet: Poems (Leaping Dog Press, 2000)

Eric Paul Shaffer Links . . .