In the fifty letters exchanged between Henry David Thoreau and Harrison Gray Otis Blake, we come to understand these two neighbors were best of friends: kindred spirits with a love and appreciation for nature, and hiking companions who ask big questions on most any topic of the day including politics, slavery, love, friendship, art, religion, and mortality. During this time Thoreau lived in Concord, Massachusetts and Blake lived in Worcester with a mere 30 miles between them. The poems in this little book are literally cut from their correspondence, from March of 1848 to May of 1861. I stay close to the original text of the letters, only changing a verb tense or adding a preposition or article here and there. The poems are in the same chronological order as the letters were written. I don't cut a poem from every letter and from some letters I cut more than one poem. The first poem is from the first letter written by Blake in March 1848 and the last poem is from the last letter Thoreau wrote on May 3, 1861, almost exactly a year before his death from tuberculosis on May 2, 1862. Like any good student, or as Thoreau scholar Bradly P. Dean describes him, disciple, Blake kept all of Thoreau's letters, while Henry, being practical, pragmatic and a minimalist, kept only one. (We can imagine Thoreau recycling Blake's letters as kindling for a fire or a liner for a bird cage in the family home's attic). But the one letter Thoreau did keep from Blake was special. This was Blake's first letter to Thoreau and provides the plot for this series of poems. In the first letter and poem Blake pays homage to the spiritual dimension he recognizes in Thoreau. This is an aspect few academics and text books today emphasize when teaching Thoreau. This was also a point of conflict for many of his contemporaries, and later critics, when trying to understand Thoreau's study of Eastern philosophy. In the first poem and letter, Blake humbly asks Thoreau for his advice and guidance. All of the subsequent poems are cut from many of the forty-nine letters Thoreau wrote to Blake. Thoreau not only included numerous Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Taoist and Sufi references in Walden and his first published book A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, but he may have read more of these texts than any living American at that time. A man who we consider one of our original, American thinkers, was undoubtedly influenced by these texts that were slowly making their way across the Atlantic from India to England to Concord, Massachusetts. Which brings me to the title and motivation for this book of poems, Henry Thoreau, Our American Bodhisattva. First, in my small opinion, Thoreau's poetry lacks the life and energy of his journals, lectures and essays. In addition, the style Thoreau uses in both Walden and A Week is not as accessible to today's reader as the letters these poems are cut from. Second, as I note above and will demonstrate in more detail in the introduction, Thoreau read, reflected, translated, quoted from, and more than likely "meditated" on these texts while living at Walden. Third, Thoreau is a teacher. Not only was he a school teacher, at one point in his life he and his brother John started their own school in Concord, but the relationship between Thoreau and Blake is also one of student and teacher, disciple and guru, a forest dwelling Bodhisattva who teaches Blake and later seekers, including us knuckleheads. If you subscribe to the arc of your existence being some kind of journey and desire to experience life for yourself, if you are that kind of spiritual animal, you will find excellent instruction in the letters and I hope these poems.
About the Author: Chris works in the nonprofit, youth development field in Washington DC. In the past, Chris taught high school English in Texas, trained English teachers in Thailand as a Peace Corps volunteer, built homes in Knoxville, TN with Habitat for Humanity as an AmeriCorps volunteer, and managed twenty five VISTA volunteers as a VISTA Leader with SER de NM in Albuquerque. Chris holds a B.A. and M.A. in English from the University of Texas and Texas Woman's University, and an M.S. in Development Management from American University. Outside of work Chris' interests include reading, writing poetry, general art he can do with his hands, and being outside as much as possible. He's also a new dad and loves it. You can follow and direct message Chris on Twitter @wchriswagner.