a guest giving way like ice melting

a guest giving way like ice melting: thirteen ways of looking at laozi (with Debby Sou Vai Keng). Temple, TX: Ink Brush Press, 2010. isbn 9780982440575. “Grappling with the challenge of Wallace Stevens’ masterpiece, “Thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird,” Steven Schroeder and Debby Sou Vai Keng combine the poet’s craft, philosophical ways of thought and the practice of Sinology to reconfigure and metamorphose Laozi’s wisdom book into a long poem in totally natural English. The product speaks to our world today with its maddened consumerism, war as national habit, the eternal questions of death and creativity, and the struggle to be rather than just exist. This elegant and beautiful little book helps us understand some of the eternal questions — and some transitory ones as well.” —Paul Friedrich, University of Chicago | order from an independent bookstore.