Carolee Campbell

Burn Down the Zendo

Burn Down the Zendo is the second Ninja Press publication of poems by California poet Michael Hannon. This volume includes incisive poems that juggle the nature of being and not being while simultaneously traversing the shaky quicksand that defines the landscape between the conscious mind and the human heart.

Each text page, from the opening fly to the last poem, is inhabited by an “enso,” or empty circle. The enso, an iconic image in Zen Buddhist Art, can mean many things: everything, nothing, unity, the moon or even a rice cake. In this text, the enso grows in size on each subsequent page, giving the reader the impression of passing though the center of the enso to the other side.

Press: Ninja Press
Date: 2004
Number and Edition: 49 of 110
Size: 13” x 7”

The Real world of Manuel Cordova

Designed, printed and bound by Carolee Campbell, The Real world of Manuel Cordova is a long poem by American poet W. S. Merwin. The text meanders along the ever-present changing colors of the river. The handmade paper is persimmon-washed Kakishibu for the text and raw flax paper for the enclosure, which is fastened with alum-tawed goatskin and bone. The book is housed in a Plexiglas slipcase.

In 2004, Ninja Press celebrated 20 years of printing, and said the following: “While there was no specific literary agenda governing the selection of works to be published by the press at the outset, the abiding interest had been, in the main, contemporary poetry.”

Press: Ninja Press
Date: 1995
Number and Edition: 106 of 160
Size: 3.5” x 13.25”