Gary Snyder

Read this for May 2024 Calfifornia Book Club.

This is Snyder's first published collection (1959), and the first thing I have read from him. IKt is a mix of his own poetry (Riprap), Cold Mountain Poems are translated and by the Chinese poet Han-shan, who lived AD 600s or 700s.

My favorites here are the ones about the Sierra Nevada and outdoor work: Hay for the Horses, Thin Ice, the Piute Creek poems. While reading I wondered where Piute Creek is, as they reminded me of Fresno County around Shaver Lake (particularly the granite). The Afterword explains that he worked in Yosemite along Piute Creek--so not far at all from Shaver. Same granite formation, most likely.

I am curious about Snyder's later work--there is A LOT, and he also won a Pulitzer.… (mere)

I watched the DVD before reading the book. The book did help clarify some of the conversation that was a bit muffled by the distance as the actors walked the countryside, and gave me time to pause and consider what was said.
The main focus of their conversation related to Snyder's live, his involvement in Buddhism and nature Jim Harrison seemed to play a secondary role, asking questions and deferring to Gary Snyder's opinions, in such a retiring manner that one wonders why Snyder seemed to have a high opinion of him. He also was very widely read, making connections with obscure or historic writings, which surprised me since I knew his writing only from 2 popular novels. I will look for more from him.
Scenes interspersed their joint conversations, Snyder reading his poetry, comments by others who knew Snyder, and historic footage of the Beat Generation.
A book with ideas to ponder, but as much an inspiration to go to their original writings rather than be satisfied with these snippets.
The video was interesting to watch once, to get a glimpse of authors I've enjoyed but never seen in real life.
The dinner scenes with other people around were not that well done, seemed more of an opportunity for Hearst to get screen time.… (mere)

Apparently this isn't a common experience for everyone, but when I was in middle school, we studied the Beat Generation. I wouldn't be taking too much poetic license to claim that I was raised by Hippies, so to learn about the Beat Generation was like discovering a long-lost branch of my family. I still have a copy of "The Rolling Stones Book of the Beats." I wouldn't say that I am in love with the art produced by the Beat Generation, nor that I personally relate with it, but I do hold in high regard as an ancestral cultural well.

Gary Snyder is an animist, as am I. So when I learned of Snyder, I was immediately intrigued—an animist Beatnik.

Although I've been hearing about Snyder for a few years now, I haven't read much of his material. "Mountains and Rivers Without End" is Snyder's Magnum Opus, so I thought I might as well start there. Some had advised against this, but I would say—if you're willing to put in the time, you won't regret it!

The following is a book review of both "Mountains and Rivers Without End" and "A Sense of the Whole."

Gary Snyder spent forty years writing "Mountains and Rivers Without End"—from 1956 to 1996. For the '97-'98 academic year, Gonnerman hosted a seminar at Stanford on "Mountains and Rivers Without End." A broad community of intellectuals, artists, and spiritual leaders contributed to this corpus, which eventually lead to the publication of "A Sense of the Whole" in 2015 (I'm not entirely sure what led to the seventeen year delay). Snyder himself says that working with "Mountains and Rivers Without End" is a treacherous journey, and therefore recommends taking on the endeavor in community. This points to some of the ways in which Snyder's work harkens back to oral traditions. The copy I have includes an audio edition, and I appreciated being able to hear the work in Snyder's own voice (I wasn't able to track down a digital edition of the work).

If you're contemplating engaging with this work, I would encourage you to put together a reading plan. In my case, I read the poem from end to end first, then read the entirety of the companion volume, then listened to the audio edition of the poem. Throughout this time I was taking notes and having discussion with friends—both those familiar and unfamiliar with the text.

I read much less poetry than prose, so I will comment that whereas with prose, I generally read a book once, I can certainly see a work like this being something I come back to multiple or numerous times, as poems have a dynamic, ever-changing quality to them.

The poem is divided into four parts, following the structure of a Noh play.

My first reading of the piece wasn't particularly rapturous, although, as I was anticipating this, I stuck with it. Things really took off once I picked up the companion text. The corpus of the poem is a talisman. There might be a line that appears unremarkable, commonplace. But then once you place the line in context—the context of Chinese landscape art, Zen Buddhism, animism, geology, yogic mythology, or any of a numerous set of relationships—the line transports you to a web of relationship.

I also happen to be reading John McPhee's "From Annals of the Former World," a Pulitzer-winning book on the geology of the United States. I can certainly recommend this as one lens to deepen into Snyders work, although there are many others as well.

You might notice, I have yet to say really anything on the subject of what the poem is "about." Like any spiritual text, an meaning we derive from the material has as much to do with our own practice with the work as it does with some kind of objective set of takeaways. For this reason, I'll continue to marinade on the poetry, and hopefully this has given you enough reason to pick up the material for yourself.… (mere)