Zen for the Rest of Us
Eightfold: Zen Poetry for Blindly Clasping Beings is a collection of sixty poems that will meet you where you are—muddy, submerged, gasping—and remind you: this is where the lotus grows. Shaped by the author’s ongoing dialogue with secular Buddhist thought, these verses offer empathy for the very real struggle of quieting the mind, illuminate the tension between spiritual aspiration and lived reality, and reflect on Buddhist teachings, practices, and precepts—all from the grounded, imperfect perspective of a lay practitioner striving to live these principles (but, perhaps, at times, fumbling along the way.)
Flowing through the overarching themes of wisdom, action, and focus, and rooted in a layperson’s struggle to find presence in the world, Eightfold explores the raw, human experiences of craving, desire, suffering--and the challenging act of clawing out to balance. Poems include a retelling of the story of Siddhartha’s transformation into the Buddha modern interpretive dialogues with the Eightfold Path, reflections on how the Three Marks of Existence shape our lives, our societies, and the planet itself, and commentary on how human nature, the suffering woven into daily life, and the modern challenges we create for ourselves fit into the Buddhist worldview.
Rather than a picture-perfect guide to enlightenment being spouted from an author behind monastery walls, or a narrative from someone claiming to have reached unceasing nirvana, these poems engage with the Eightfold Path as an in-progress process—one that anyone, no matter how floundering you might be, can join in on.
Eightfold: Zen Poetry for Blindly Clasping Beings is, thus, Zen for the rest of us. For the blind, the clasping, and all those ever-reaching for liberation, this is the book you want to bring to your meditation cushion.
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About the Author
A. H. Spadafora lives in the Atlanta area, where she is currently working on a variety of manuscripts and building a career from freelance gigs. With a Master’s degree in Anthropology, Bachelor degrees in Religious Studies and Philosophy, and minors taken in English and Psychology, she is particularly enthusiastic about research, creativity, and balancing her career with personal well-being. Her debut poetry collection, Moments of Peace, was originally published as an e-book in 2013 and updated for print publication in 2024. This latest work, Eightfold: Zen Poetry for Blindly Clasping Beings, is the first of a few works in progress focused on a twenty-plus year dialog with Buddhist theory and practice.
Contact
A. H. Spadafora
zen.chaos.writing@gmail.com
https://www.zen-chaos.net/
