Ryokan (1758?1831) was a Japanese Soto Zen Buddhist monk who lived as a hermit. Even by those standards, he was known for unconventionality, shocking others, for example, by refusing to hurt bugs, and confronting burglars to willingly give them his clothes. But most of all Ryokan is remembered for his poetry, which presents the essence of Zen life.

John (aka Isaac) Slater has lived since 1999 as a Trappist monk at the Abbey of the Genesee in New York, where he's novice director. He's published collections of his own poems, a co-translation, The Tangled Braid: Ninety-Nine Poems by Hafiz of Shiraz, and Do Not Judge Anyone: Desert Wisdom for a Polarized World forthcoming from Liturgical Press (spring 2025). He has been drawn to the work and figure of Ryokan for more than thirty years. He lives in Piffard, NY.

Stan Ziobro lives in Charleston, SC. After earning a certificate in Asian studies from Kansai University in Osaka, Japan, he graduated from the University of Rochester in philosophy and Japanese. His graduate degrees are in religious studies from Wake Forest University and The Divinity School at University of Chicago. He's worked as a professional translator of Japanese since 1998. Translations include those incorporated in James L. Ford's Jokei and Buddhist Devotion in Early Medieval Japan (Oxford University Press, 2006). He lives in Charleston, SC.