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Book Intro

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Introduction
This book represents a selection of my work in the Northwest mountains and streams from 1993 to 2008. I take as my masters and mentors the ancient Chinese nature poets and Daoists, who were writing remarkably subtle, infinitely wise observations of nature and cosmos in their succinct and beautiful poems of nearly two millennia ago.
The Chinese sage-poets of long ago are eminently relevant and valuable to us as guides along the Way of living in harmony with Nature. For Daoists then as now Water both as an element and spiritual principle serves as the primary guide to flowing with the myriad phenomena and constant flux of the universe, taking the path(s) of least resistance, in addition to inspiring much sentiment and verse. (We humans are 70-75% water, after all).
A good deal of humility (from humus, or forest soil layers of leaf, mold, moss, indeed, the very stuff of which come) is in order in our relation to nature. This begins, I believe, with quieting the ego enough to realize the complex, interconnected, and beautiful harmonies that hold the world together, that brought us into being as humans, and that are the source of endless wisdom, health, and happiness when we listen (with all our senses and being).
These poems, then, are offered in honor of the Chinese masters that perhaps we may yet hear their faint echoes inviting us to slow down, breath deep, pay attention (it is free, precious, and yet in such shortage) and listen......... listen.........listen........

A Note on reading (my) Poetry
For those who may be new to reading poetry (or not), may I suggest: a slower pace than is used for prose, thus a savouring of each word and its nuances (in meaning, musicality, and context within the line and poem), and a pause at the end of each line, with the understanding that each line (like each word) stands somewhat on its own, is its own poem; the length of the pause being a personal, but necessary choice.
Empty space is as equally important as lines are in poems, just as in Chinese landscape painting: think of swirling mists, partially hidden crags and pine trees, mountains emerging from the emptiness. Finally, reading a poem aloud will often provide a quite different (and necessary) understanding and appreciation. I hope this helps your enjoyment.

Preface to the Second Edition
Part I of the present book was originally published in 2003 as Water Seeking: Poems of Wonder, in a handbound, limited printing of 100 copies, all of which are now dispersed to the 6 directions. It was my first published book of poetry. By 2008 I had enough new material to grow this chapbook into the full-length version presented here. Somehow it came to be 2010. I think life intervened between, as well as other poetic projects. A brief semantic note: the title of Part II, “Eh-da- ho” is my rendering of an approximation of the Nez Perce pronounciation of their homeland in N. Central Idaho, which came to be known to white settlers as “Idaho.” It is said to mean: “[Behold the beautiful]Light on the Mountains,” and I take it as an apt description of this very mountainous land. Meanwhile, Idaho, like the rest of the Western U.S., continues to suffer the assaults of too many people and their machines, particularly their water craft, as I express from the kayaker’s perspective in “Into a Rippled Sky.” And more development continues to add houses, cars, et al ad naseum to the already ill-planned suburban sprawl. May those who can listen, still find places to hear
nature’s teachings.

C.A.
Inverness, CA January 23, 2011

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from Water Seeking Light Audio Book, released January 1, 2011

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Christopher Robin Anderl Inverness, California

Christopher Anderl has led many life-times, a few of them in the present even.

Poet-Chi:
TaiChiNature.us

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