New Biography on Philip Whalen due soon..

       Gary Snider and Philip Whalen sit outside a temple above the village of Shimoyama in Japan

Philip Whalen and Gary Snyder were leading lights in 20th-century American poetry and in the establishment of Zen Buddhism in the West.  Their lifelong friendship, like other famous literary and dharma friendships, helped shape them both, as well as countless others whose lives they touched.  A new biography on Philip Whalen coming out soon by David Schneider.

Hymnus Ad Patrem Sinensis by Philip Whalen

I praise those ancient Chinamen
Who left me a few words,
Usually a pointless joke or a silly question,
A line of poetry drunkenly scrawled on the margin
of a quick splashed picture – bug,leaf,
caricature of Teacher -
On paper held together now by little more than ink
& their own strength brushed momentarily over it.

Their world and several others since,
Gone to hell in a handbasket, they knew it -
Cheered as it whizzed by _
& conked out among the busted spring rain cherryblossom winejars
Happy to have saved us all.