Nothing Works: Meditations on Aikido, Buddhism, the Tao, Zen, and other inconsequential things...Vol. l

Nothing Works, the first book in the Nothing Series, is a book of blending and struggle, similar to the practices and philosophies that are the subject of the poems. The poems reflect personal study, thought, and practice in Aikido, (Zen) Buddhism, meditation, and, the Tao, combined with a Western overview. The book is a personal examination and exploration in poetic format, blending personal tales of discovery and direct experience, with more distant and imagined poems. The poems are heavily influenced by the styles of classical Chinese and Japanese poetry, particularly the landscape tradition of Chinese poetry of Mountains-and-Rivers, which emphasizes the wilder aspects of landscape, and with Fields-and-Gardens, representing the more domestic aspects of landscape. The author has added a third category he calls Concrete-and-Steel, based on a more modern, urban perspective, but still inspired by and honoring the prior Chinese poetic traditions. This second edition has been completely revised and expanded.