 |
Lawren Bale lives in Narberth, Pennsylvania with his wife Martina and their baby daughter Annabelle Jean Elisabeth (born 11/11/01). The youngest of three brothers, Bale was raised in rural California and attended the University of Hawaii. He has worked in the potato fields, apricot sheds, super markets, and wilderness forests of Southern California. |
 |
After completing his BA
in Religious Studies (Asian) at the University of Hawaii, Lawren worked
as a carpenter for a year. After he broke his leg on a job site, he used
his workman's compensation to finance a journey to Bangkok, where he practiced
meditation as a bhikkhu during 1974 and 1975, under the guidance of Pra
Thepsiddhimuni -- head of Vipassana Meditation at Wat
Mahadhatu (Mahatat), a university of the Mahanikai sect of Theravada
Buddhism in Thailand. |
 |
In 1976, Bale traveled to
Japan, and practiced meditation with Ten Dai Buddhists on Mt. Hiei. He
then moved to Kyoto, taught English, sold hand made leather
goods of his own design (jackets, trousers & sandals) and became
conversant in Japanese. In 1980, Bale returned to graduate studies at Marquette
University in Milwaukee, WI. In1981, he was invited to study with the Jesuit
faculty at the Philosophisch-Theologische
Hochschule
Sankt Georgen in Frankfurt, Germany. While living in Germany he learned
to appreciate Guinness Stout and Irish pipes, and he met his wife. |
 |
Upon his return to America,
he completed his MA at Marquette and transferred to Temple University in
Philadelphia. He taught at Temple and Rutgers University, while writing
his Ph.D. dissertation (Ecology of Mind in Interreligious Dialogue)
-- completed in May, 1994. In his classes, his aim is to fuse academic
rigor and poetic imagination, while raising questions about war and peace,
poverty, pollution, overpopulation, human sexuality, love and the environmental
crisis. It is rumored that he gives easy marks (not true) and his students
tell him he is an exciting teacher. |
 D&O
Press
|
Lawren Bale began writing
poetry while attending the University of Hawaii, during the Vietnam war.
Down
& Out Press has printed five volumes of his verse: Prochronisms;
Proto
Post Modern Blues; Ecomind; Termites
Tribal March & Midtown Charity Ball; and Restoring
the Gordian Knot. Selections of his most recent poetry, Stochasticims
are published on the internet. |
|
e-mail:lawren@NarberthPA.com