Slender Volumes is a collection of poetry by Richard von Sturmer.
Slender Volumes locates the cypress trees of Buddhist folklore in Onehunga and the teachings of the Zen tradition along its foreshore.
Elaborating on kōans collected by poet-philosopher Eihei Dōgen, each poem fastens centuries and distances together to find insight in everyday things: seagulls on a handrail, insects drinking from a pan of water, sump oil glistening in a white bucket. Clear-sighted and compassionate, Slender Volumes recovers what it means to be intimate with our surroundings and to meet the particulars of our world with perfect curiosity.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard von Sturmer is a writer, performer, and filmmaker well known for writing the lyrics to Blam Blam Blam’s “There is No Depression in New Zealand.” He is a Zen Buddhist teacher and the co-founder of the Auckland Zen Centre. Slender Volumes is his tenth collection of writings.
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards Shortlist
2025 New Zealand Book Design Awards Shortlist
COLOPHON
Format: 192 pages, 13 x 19.5 cm, softcover
Publisher: Spoor Books (Aotearoa / New Zealand)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781067018900
