The Parliament of Poets: An Epic Poem (2024 revised edition) takes place partly on the moon, at the Apollo 11 landing site, the Sea of Tranquility, and around the world.
Apollo, the Greek god of poetry, calls all the poets of the nations, ancient and modern, East and West, to assemble on the moon to consult on the meaning of modern life. The Parliament of Poets sends the main character, the Poet of the Moon, on a Journey to the seven continents to learn from all of the spiritual and wisdom traditions of humankind. On Earth and on the moon, the poets teach a global, universal celebration of life.
One of the major themes is the power of women and the female spirit across cultures. Another is the nature of science and religion, including Quantum Physics, as well as the "two cultures," science and the humanities.
All the great shades appear at the Apollo 11 landing site in the Sea of Tranquility: Homer and Virgil from the Greek and Roman civilizations; Dante, Spenser, and Milton hail from the Judeo-Christian West; Rumi, Attar, and Hafez step forward from Islam; Du Fu and Li Po, Basho and Zeami, step forth from China and Japan; the poets of the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana meet on that plain; griots from Africa; shamans from Indonesia and Australia; Murasaki Shikibu, Emily Dickinson, and Jane Austen, poets and seers of all Ages, bards, rhapsodes, troubadours, and minstrels, major and minor, hail across the halls of time and space.
That transcendent Rose symbol of our age, the Earth itself, viewed from the heavens, one world with no visible boundaries, metaphor of the oneness of the human race, reflects its blue-green light into the blackness of the starry universe.
"A great epic poem of startling originality and universal significance, in every way partaking of the nature of world literature." --Hans G. Ruprecht, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
"Very readable and intriguingly enjoyable. A masterpiece that will stand the test of time." --Poetry Cornwall, No. 36, England, UK
Glaysher, Frederick: - Frederick Glaysher is an epic poet, rhapsode, poet-critic, and the author or editor of ten books. Glaysher studied at the University of Michigan with the American poet Robert Hayden and edited his collected prose and poetry. He holds two degrees from the University of Michigan, including a Master's in English, and is the Literary Executor of the Hayden Estate. He 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. A Fulbright-Hays scholar to China in 1994, he studied at Beijing University, the Buddhist Mogao Caves on the old Silk Road, and elsewhere in China, including Hong Kong and the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. While a National Endowment for the Humanities scholar in 1995 on India, he further explored the conflicts between the traditional regional civilizations of Islamic and Hindu cultures and modernity. In its theatre version, Glaysher has performed more than 70 times in the USA, UK, and Canada.
