by Rolando Pérez

Chanoyu for (the) Fall / Chanoyu para el otoño employs a variety of Japanese poetic forms to explore the interplay of light and darkness, presence and absence, shadows, subtlety, and the unsayable (yūgen). These forms allow the author to pursue a disciplined attention to thought and feeling (kokoro), revealing the depths hidden within ordinary experience.

At one level, this volume reflects on autumn and the quiet descent of leaves, light, and time. Yet because the English word fall signifies both a season and the act of falling, it inspired Rolando Pérez to create a work concerned not only with autumn but with the many kinds of falls (furu) that shape a human life—losses, transformations, endings, and renewals.

The result is a distinctly Western meditation composed in the minor key of yūgen, where what remains unspoken often carries the greatest resonance.

A sublime collection, moving, searching and profoundly alert to life’s endless challenges.  

—Junot Díaz, author of This Is How You Lose Her 

Chanoyu for (the) Fall / Chanoyu para el otoño (en caída) is the fourth and final volume of the quartet Chanoyu for the Seasons/Chanoyu para las estaciones.