The Bower of Nil: A Narrative Poem. Frederick Glaysher. Reverberations. 71 pages. $7.99 - ePub
ISBN: 9780982677827. Earthrise Press, ebook Edition, 2010. ePub format. Non-DRM. Kindle

Moving beyond Postmodernism, overturning the nihilism of Nietzsche, Peter Marsh, an academic philosopher, weighs modern life in a conversation with his friend, David Emerson, a businessman. Brought together after long separation by the brutal murder of Mary, Peter’s wife, a time of devastating loss and crisis, their friendship inspires a dark night of the soul, during which Peter’s meditations range over several hundred years of philosophy, politics, religion, social change, the dilemmas of existence, evoking a spiritual vision of the complexities of the 21st Century, the United Nations, and global governance.

“A poet now whose work and dedication to a demanding and difficult art I admire; a man who has the gift of inner grace.” —Robert Hayden

“This is a doorway into the future.” —Poems Niederngasse

“Glaysher pays his readers the compliment of assuming that they will have at least a basic familiarity with the major world classics and philosophies of both East and West.” —Manifold 44

“Mr. Glaysher writes with a genuine passion, with an obvious thrill at the play of ideas, and with an often compelling sense of purpose.... On balance the poem is very worthwhile reading and the middle section is just outstanding.” Brothersjudd

“A thought provoking read for these times!” Pulsar

“In some ways, this seems like the least fashionable book imaginable in today’s poetry world, which I would hazard to say is exactly what Glaysher wants it to be.” Sidereality

Frederick Glaysher studied writing under a private tutorial, at the University of Michigan, with the poet Robert Hayden and edited both Hayden’s Collected Prose (University of Michigan Press) and his Collected Poems (Liveright). He holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from U of M, the latter in English. At the college and university level, he taught American and non-Western literature, world religions, etc., for ten years. 

Mr. Glaysher lived for more than fifteen years outside Michigan—in Japan, where he taught at Gunma University in Maebashi; in Arizona, on the Colorado River Indian Tribes Reservation, site of one of the largest internment camps for Japanese-Americans during WWII; in Illinois, on the central farmlands and on the Mississippi; ultimately returning to his suburban hometown of Rochester. He has been a Fulbright-Hays and NEA scholar on China and India and has traveled and studied throughout China.