Frank Inzan Owen is a Dōjin (Wayfarer) of a Nature-oriented contemplative path influenced by various sources including Tao, solitary Sōtō Zen, and other ideas resonant with Shinto and Shugendō views of Nature. In addition to mountains, forests, rivers, and the teachings embedded within the four seasons, his poetry draws inspiration from dreams, the Jungian view of the soul, and "practice-hints" found in the lives and works of various Wayfaring poets of the Far East. This path, in turn, exerts a strong influence on his poetry and evolving creative life.

Residing in the Appalachian Piedmont of north-central Georgia ("foot of the mountain"), near the Chatta Uchee River, within the ancestral territory of the Aniyvwiya (Principal People, Cherokee), when Frank is not tending an organic garden, or hillwalking, he facilitates a form of spiritual companioning and innerwork he calls contemplative soulwork, contributes as Editor-at-Large to Wayfarer Magazine, and produces a monthly podcast called The Poet's Dreamingbody.

POETRY

His poetry over the years has been a blend of styles, ranging from retrospective free verse and haiku to experimental dream poems. His first three books of poetry, published under his birth name (Frank LaRue Owen), includes The School of Soft-Attention, The Temple of Warm Harmony, and Stirrup of the Sun & Moon, all published by Homebound Publications.

In the Spring of 2017, The School of Soft-Attention was selected as the winner of the 2017 Homebound Publications Poetry Prize and garnered a Silver Nautilus Book Award in 2018.

Also in 2018, one of the poems from The School of Soft-Attention, "The Bouquet of the Last Direction," was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

His second book of poetry, The Temple of Warm Harmony, released in August 2019, was nominated in 2020 for a Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award.

The last book in the series with Homebound Publications, Stirrup of the Sun & Moon, was released in April 2020.

Most recently, he has contributed to a book entitled Dawn Songs: A Birdwatcher's Field Guide to the Poetics of Migration, edited by Jamie K. Reaser and J. Drew Lanham on Talking Waters Press.