from the introduction by John Ninso High
Anything You Want
The quiet advances
as best it can, until my voice
is able to reach me….
Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno was a person of many lives, not only in his prolific and fecund outpouring of imagination, nor in all the countries he traveled and lived, studied and wrote—nor the innumerable people he counseled and taught, but also in the many moments when he walked up to the edge of death—only to surprise us all and come back to write another brilliant book, as he has in gifting us yet one more to cherish in Anything You Want. In the realm of his poetic manifestations over five decades, Anything You Want stands as his magnum opus, a final salutation of gratitude to all he experienced and loved, and to all of us who love him. In pulling forth his immense chi and vitality of mind and heart, he managed—under often quite dire physical conditions—to reveal the mystery and secret of his bountiful creativity by fully exploring spheres beyond life and death, or coming and going, in a verse that simultaneously invents and forges koans for us who lament his passing, and in the end for us to discover, the ole maestro hasn’t gone anywhere after all:
East, west, north, south
everything is all right,
everything is all right or not all right,
only for me, everything is all right.
Those lines from the Zen master, Quingliang (Fayan Wenyi) were among Christopher’s favorites, and he often quoted them to me in our daily letters and koan exchanges that began after he was first diagnosed with cancer over a decade ago. A quiet Zen master of his own making, Christopher embodied the meaning of this koan with an indefatigable gusto and cheer, frequently reminding me of what one of his teachers had once said to him when he and his family were living in Japan:
Teacher, I am discouraged, what should I do? Encourage others, his teacher responded.
And that’s what Christopher did: encouraged, coached, or consoled the countless writers and friends who came to him for council with their own books, creative projects, or illnesses, or despair with the world’s plight, or those of their own personal lives. In some ways, Quingliang’s “only for me, everything is all right” echoes Chris’ fierce passion for life with his cherished family—and in his own poems, translations, and stories, as well as in his social and political convictions over a lifetime of caring for the world, its environment, social justice and equity, and everyone he met, taught and from whom he continuously learned:
Moments rearrange themselves
as they will:
upside down, slantwise, trapezoidal
Each has its own beauty
its own perfect symmetry
Anything You Want, Poetry by Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno
Paperback / 87 pages / 4.25x7"
ISBN: 979-8-9918692-1-8
Distribution: Ingram
Pub Date: 4/15/25