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Keith Holyoak, poet, translator of classical Chinese poetry, and cognitive scientist, was raised on a dairy farm in British Columbia, Canada. He received his B.A. from the University of British Columbia, and his Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University. A professor of Psychology, first at the University of Michigan and since 1986 at the University of California, Los Angeles, Holyoak has published over 150 papers and books. He was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Psychological Society. He serves on the Board of Directors for Xunesis, a company dedicated to finding creative ways of linking science with the arts. Holyoak writes formal poetry, using meter and rhyme. His poems have been published in numerous literary magazines in the US, England and Canada, including The London Magazine, Envoi, Candelabrum Poetry Magazine, Poem, The Lyric, Red Rock Review, Edge City Review, Bellowing Ark and The Eclectic Muse. In addition to Yeats, Frost, and the landscape of the Pacific Northwest, Holyoak has been influenced by the classical Chinese poetry of Li Bai and Du Fu (aka Li Po and Tu Fu), whose poems he has translated and published in magazines in the US, England and New Zealand. Holyoak is a member of PoetsWest.
Reviewed by Nandita Keshavan for Readers' Favorite
Keith Holyoak’s Facing the Moon is an interesting anthology of ancient Chinese poetry by the famous poets Li Bai and Du Fu. During translation from the original Chinese verse, he manages to capture the sentiments of the verses without affecting the artistic flow. The book begins with informative background on the two poets and the historical time in which they lived. Several of the poems deal with sadness, but there is a wistful and nostalgic beauty in them which makes it clear that the melancholic sentiment is mixed with gratitude for friendship and good times.
Furthermore, the poets also write in humorous tones which give an entertaining quality to their bumbling travels and encounters. Often it’s their simplicity and innocence which draw you in to sympathise and laugh with them. Occasionally the poetry is from the point of view of one of their wives, which shows the poet’s ability to expand his awareness into the thoughts of women. There are also pitiable times of poverty and lone moments where the search for spiritual guidance is apparent and these give the selection an element of realism and integration of different facets of life.
Scenic backdrops are beautifully described. Occasionally, there is an element of solitude and communion with the moon – and the irony that arises regarding its silent serene presence despite turbulence or loneliness within the writer. Another aspect that is also achieved by the book is capturing the friendship between the two poets, who teased each other and also experienced a moving sense of kinship which becomes most apparent during Du Fu’s reaction to the exile of Li Bai.
The book also includes photographs of the poems written in the original Chinese script which illustrates the overall visual artistic effect of the beautiful Chinese script. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in exploring how themes of isolation, poverty and loss can interweave with friendship, camaraderie and beautiful expressions on family and nature.
