John 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. Slater has been drawn to the work and figure of Ryōkan for more than thirty years.