Zen Telegrams

ZEN Telegrams by Paul Reps: ~Initially the name itself seems to pose a problem. You might call these seventy-nine pieces “picture-poems,” but they are communications that are more than pictures, more than poems. ~The author calls them “poems before words,” “pictures before art.” They aim at the inner ear, the inner eye, the inner self. The editor calls them “Zen telegrams,” a term pointing to both their immediacy and their datelessness…and who can resist opening a telegram? ~Any of these seventy-nine works may be the one your inner self has been expecting all your life. Or again, perhaps you may simply want to belly-feel the delightfully illogical logic of life, and you will find here a trigger for this most satisfying of all laughter. ~Any reader, whether deep thinker or philosophical novice, is sure to find that Reps is sending here the most awakening and pleasuring telegram ever received, plus a whole book of “pictures before art.” Or are they “picture-poems”? In the end, the name is no problem at all, as you read, look, and LOSE YOUR UNFLOWER MIND. ~The unique books of Paul Reps have attracted countless readers since they were first published in the 1950’s. His classic Zen Flesh, Zen Bones remains one of the most popular books on Zen ever published in English. ~ZEN TELEGRAMS is a collection on Rep’s “picture-poems,” works of calligraphic art and minimalist poetry that first fascinated Japanese, then attracted Western viewers. A lesser artist trying to combine English text and Eastern art might have failed, but Reps was a rare talent, accomplished in a wide variety of literary genres and art forms. ~American by birth, Reps lived in many countries and traveled throughout the world. He seemed to know no national boundaries, and his unique work appeals to a universal audience.