Reading Sartre's "Being and Nothingness" While Tending a Brush Fire

by Jason S. Hancock

Reading Sartre’s “Being and Nothingness” While Tending a Brush Fire is a collection of poems that started me on my way to writing novels. The format of these poems was chosen after studying the Buddhist scholar and saint of the middle way, Arya Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna wrote short stanzas which philosophically and scientifically explore different phenomena like motion, fire, and belief. His thoughtful, economical word choice inspired me to refine my thoughts down to the most essential. Some of these poems are featured in my novel, The Solace Garden, where they are given a broader life as they are presented in a compare/contrast model to the narrative. Both the poems and the novel deal with politics, creativity, socio-economic issues, and religion. The title was inspired by a personal experience.

70 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 7, 2020