BIO: In June 2010 the New York City publisher, World Audience, Inc. released his thirteen book, Already There, (under his pen name Zen Nam). Prominent poet Jane Hirshfield described Already There this way: “As clear-seeing as a dustless mirror angled into a school of sun fish, the tiny poems of this book carry a multitude of reflections bright as mica, consummately free in spirit, and in equal measure comic and profound.”

Richard Weekley was born in Grand Junction, Colorado in 1945. Cofounder/coeditor of Volume Number Magazine from 1983-2000, he won the Teacher of the Year Award for teaching Creative Writing in the William S. Hart Union High School District in Los Angeles County in 1999. He retired after forty years in 2007 and now devotes his time to writing and his publishing company, Los Angeles Poets’ Press. The Literary Review, The MacGuffin, The Midwest Quarterly, Poetry LA, Queen’s Quarterly, Wisconsin Review, West Coast Review, Bitterroot, CQ, Crosscurrents, and Pudding are a sampling of the journals that have published his poetry. He is listed in A Directory of American Poets and Writers compiled by Poets & Writers, Inc., and the winner of various prizes, including Black Bear Publication’s International Chapbook Competition. He was a visiting artist at Mount Saint Mary’s College and California Institute of the Arts, as well as for many coffee houses, literary groups and colleges. He’s been a guest on several AM and FM radio programs. Although published internationally in four countries, Richard continues to counsel his dog Bubba not to bark at unseen skateboarders and himself not to make shopping lists for insect repellent or toilet paper during zazen. Richard’s Zen teacher tells him: “To study Zen is to study the self—to study the self is to forget the self.” Richard occasionally writes and is published under the pen name Zen Nam.

“Richard Weekley is a buddha with sax in hand; his tender never-ending tune will help us heal our lives.” —Peter Levitt, Finger Painting on the Moon.

“Richard Weekley is a dynamic communicator. His performance brings to life poems that already sing on the page; we are held spellbound by words that bring us into the very fabric of life, from earth to spirit, man to woman and child, god, images embroidered by every imaginable perception. Poetry that is so alive—makes us alive, and we leave a Weekley reading uplifted, ready to take on the world.” —Alice Pero, Moonday Poetry Reading Series Coordinator


PUBLICATIONS:

My Small Journey—An Omnibus of Poetry 1980–2019  (Collected Poems) - $60.00
Feeling Funny (as Zen Nam), Los Angeles Poets Press) - $5.00
Still Listening to Ravens  [as Zen Nam], (Los Angeles Poets Press, 2018) - $5.00
Already There [as Zen Nam], (World Audience, Inc., 2010) - $20.00
Phenomenal (Los Angeles Poets’ Press, 2010) - $5.00
Poems Not to Read (Los Angeles Poets’ Press, 2010) - $20.00
I Should Have Told You of My Life: the poetry of Richard Weekley read by Richard and Friends (J. W. Davies Productions 2007) DVD
Graffiti Verité 6, The Odyssey: Poets, Passion & Poetry, a Bob Bryan Film, available on DVD through Netflix, 2006
Pastiche (Los Angeles Poets’ Press, 2006) - $6.00
The Man Who Lost His Voice and Other Poems (Los Angeles Poets’ Press, 2005) - $6.00
Gratitude (Los Angeles Poets’ Press, 2004)
100 Doors (Los Angeles Poets’ Press, 2003)
The Scrubwoman (Los Angeles Poets’ Press, 2001)
These Things Happen (The Inevitable Press, 1997, 1999)
Small Diligences (Los Angeles Poets’ Press, 1988) out of print
Not the Subject of Cocktail Parties (Black Bear Publications, 1986 Winner International Chapbook Competition)
Little Pianos—And Other Poems from Europe (Star Garden Poets Cooperative, 1982)
Mayan Night (Domina Books, 1981)
The Adventures of Chet Blake—Plastic Man [prose], (Crescent Publications, 1975)

All in-print items $5.00 + shipping and handling except where stated.

COLLABORATIONS:

Vol. No. (Volume Number Magazine), Los Angeles Poets Press, back issues 1983–2000
POEMS
The Night Arrives

and rains on
seconds that exit
the moment

all this delicious-
ness and no
moon to speak
of—

the wave of
eternity—an
old knick-knack
knocking on the
wind

your hand
I remember holding
it

on a bluff
over water that
had no name

       when we jumped
       the land was
       nightfall

and when we
laughed it was
spring

*

the universe spreads
wings …

              we ride

        on.


—Richard Weekley

To See Everything Just As Atoms

Not as pillow and bed:
To see everything just as atoms:
The sky,
A knife,
A kiss,
A stone.

To see everything just as atoms
All wearing their ephemeral Buddha nature:
The butterfly wing,
The bicycle wheel
Moonlight,
Sonata #5.

—Richard Weekley

from Already There