April 30, 2011 PRESS RELEASE  For Immediate Release

Dreams Wander On: Contemporary Poems of Death Awareness, edited by Robert Epstein, Published by MET Press

Baltimore, Maryland – April 30, 2011 – Dreams Wander On: Contemporary Poems of Death Awareness edited by Robert Epstein, has been published as a trade paperback by MET Press of Baltimore, Maryland.

"He who would teach men to die would teach them to live."—Michel de Montaigne. To be born is to die. We behold evidence of death every day of our lives, but our own mortality is nowhere in sight. Shall we relegate our own finiteness to the farthest point on the horizon, or bring it up close to discern what light it may shed on our all-too-brief lives? Contemplating death is not morbid! Philosophers and poets throughout the ages agree: The awareness of our own mortality deepens our connection with life.

In Dreams Wander On: Contemporary Poems of Death Awareness, haiku poet and editor Robert Epstein has collected more than 300 death awareness haiku (and related forms, senryu and tanka, plus artwork) by 125 contributors worldwide, who have written with great sensitivity and acute consciousness of their own mortality. The first collection of its kind to appear in contemporary English language haiku, Dreams Wander On takes its inspiration from the Japanese, who have for centuries written death poems or jisei on the verge of death as a kind of "farewell to life."

While not literally writing as they breathe their last, the poets in Dreams Wander On don’t shy away from their own finiteness, but rather stare down the well of mortality to draw insight, wisdom and courage from the unfathomable. Readers will find themselves slowing down and appreciating each and every moment, where revelations unfold about the great mystery that is life-and-death.

In these pages, you will encounter uncertainty, humor, gratitude, irony, joy, love, and a universal longing to be spared the fate which one and all must face. Such contemplations have the power to transport both reader and writer from the present moment to the Eternal Now—an ineffable and extraordinary gift of our finiteness.

Critical Comment:

"Poets are our intrepid adventurers into the unknowable, thinkers on the unthinkable. Epstein’s collection of death awareness poems brings us a refreshing look at the brave task of examining the most common, in fact ultimate, human experience of dying, all too often shunned and studiously avoided in our Western society. Anytime we can pause to consider death, our own and that of those we love, we are brought more closely to fully living, to valuing each and every breath and moment as only the consideration of death allows."

—Jana Baldridge Vargas, author of The Promise of Death, The Passion of Life: A Reflective Exploration of Death, Loss and Living Fully.

"In the face of death, human beings create art. Robert Epstein has collected pieces of that art together in one place for your consideration. Within this collection you will find your own awareness of death reflected in the voices of your fellow human beings, as we all seek to come to terms with impermanence."

—Patricia J Anderson, All of Us: Americans Talk about the Meaning of Death.

"A deeply touching book of human beings, so skilled with words that we call them poets, auditioning for death and forced off-stage by the cascade of poets that follow. They flicker, brightly; they die—calling to mind Hamlet’s own spontaneous death haiku half-hour before his silence:

It will be short;

The interim’s mine,

And a man’s life’s no more than to say ‘one.’"

—Steven Antinoff, instructor at University of the Arts and author of Spiritual Atheism

About the Author:

Robert Epstein is a psychotherapist and haiku poet living in the San Francisco Bay Area. His poetry has appeared in Acorn, bottle rockets, Frogpond, The Heron’s Nest, Mariposa, Modern Haiku, moonset, South by Southeast, and other publications. An anthology, The Breath of Surrender: A Collection of Recovery-Oriented Haiku, was published in 2009 by Modern English Tanka Press. Robert is currently at work on a book of his own death awareness poems entitled, Checkout Time is Noon: A Year of Death Awareness Haiku.

For media inquiries or to arrange an interview with the author, contact Robert Epstein by e-mail at taylorepstein@earthlink.net. Publisher information at: www.themetpress.com.

This book is available from www.Lulu.com/modernenglishtanka. Information is available online at www.themetpress.com Price: $18.95 USD. ISBN 978-1-935398-24-0. Trade paperback. 136 pages, illustrations, 6" x 9", perfect binding, 60# cream interior paper, black and white interior ink, 100# exterior paper, full-color exterior ink.

About MET Press:

MET Press (Modern English Tanka Press) is a small independent publishing house in Baltimore, Maryland, dedicated to producing work of lasting literary value, especially fine verse. We use modern print-on-demand production and distribution methods. Our special mission is to promote the tanka form of poetry and to educate newcomers about this most ancient poetic form.

Contact: Denis M. Garrison, owner, MET Press / Modern English Tanka Press

Telephone: 443-559-2776 Email to dmg@themetpress.com Website: www.themetpress.com

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