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Gary Snyder (1930- ). Gary Snyder (1930- ). “I try to hold both history and wildness in my mind, that my poems may approach the true measure of things.”. His quest of the balance (between Nature and Culture) has led him to…. 1. The natural world (Nature Writing) 2. The study of mythology
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Gary Snyder (1930- ) “I try to hold both history and wildness in my mind, that my poems may approach the true measure of things.”
His quest of the balance (between Nature and Culture) has led him to… • 1. The natural world (Nature Writing) • 2. The study of mythology • 3. Eastern religions • 4. Oral traditions • The most archaic values on earth.
Snyder’s Poetry Poetry as recovery and healing. (like the shaman-poet of primitive cultures From Poetry and the Primitive) • His poems are acts of cultural criticism, challenges to the dominant values of the contemporary world.
Literary Life • In 1947, he entered Reed College, where he studied anthropology and was interested in Native American cultures. (published Myth and Texts in 1960s) • 1950s: San Francisco Renaissance. With Allen Ginsberg
Literary Life II • Also study classical Chinese at Berkeley and translated some of the Cold Mountains Poems • Mid 1950s to 1968 lived in Japan: learned Buddhism under Zen masters (poetic vision in The Blue Sky)
Worked as a timber scaler, a forest fire lookout, a logger • “My poem follow the rhythms of the physical work I’m doing and the life I’m reading at any given time” • Riprap (a forester’s term)
Snyder’s poem often fllow a trail of ascent or descent, as in Stright-Creek—Great Burn (from Turtle Island, 1975) • Hiking with friends, he experiences the world as dynamic and flowing (running water and “changing clouds”) • But the journey brings the walker to a still point
The achievement of stillness in a universe of change is pivotal. • The mind empties itself, the individual ego is erased, and the local place reveals the universal. • A Zen-like stillness and also an appealing energy (source: love of wildness and celebration of Eros)
A Walk • Sunday the only day we don't work: • Mules farting around the meadow, • Murphy fishing, • The tent flaps in the warm • Early sun: I've eaten breakfast and I'll • Take a walk • To Benson Lake. Packed a lunch, • Goodbye. Hopping on creekbed boulders • Up the rock throat three miles Puite Creek --
P2 • In steep gorge glacier-slick rattlesnake country • Jump, land by a pool, trout skitter,The clear sky. Deer tracks. • Bad place by a falls, boulders big as houses, • Lunch tied to belt, • I stemmed up a crack and almost fell • But rolled out safe on a ledge and ambled on.
Related Links • http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/Yosemite/NorthernYosemite/BensonBeachMorning.html • http://some-landscapes.blogspot.com/2006/02/piute-creek.html • comment • http://mail.sju.edu.tw/cocomo/
P3 • Quail chicks freeze underfoot, color of stone • Then run cheep! away, hen quail fussing. • Craggy west end of Benson Lake -- after edging Past dark creek pools on a long white slope – • Lookt down in the ice-black lake • lined with cliff • From far above: deep shimmering trout.
P4 • A lone duck in a gunsightpass • steep side hill • Through slide-aspen and talus, to the east end, • Down to grass, wading a wide smooth stream • Into camp. At last. • By the rusty three-year- • Ago left-behind cookstove • Of the old trail crew, • Stoppt and swam and ate my lunch.
