"The greatest of living nature poets. . . . It helps us to go on, having Gary Snyder in our midst."--Los Angeles Times. Snyder is the aut...
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Aug 13, 2011
Abby_Normal
rated it: 
This is one of those books that I've had for years and still keep close at hand--and close to heart. It's showing wear from honest love, as it's been subjected to several thorough readings, a period in college during which it practically lived in my bookbag, a cross-country road trip (reading Snyder in the desert is probably as close to satori as this high-strung city girl is ever going to get), and scribbled annotations in the margins that just keep growing.
Snyder opened a reading More...
Snyder opened a reading More...
Jun 14, 2008
Haines
rated it: 
Snyder is great, and this represents him quite well. However, I think his body of work will remain just a hair's breadth away from full illumination until a devoted editor annotates many of his very particular regional, botanical, anthropological and non-English references. It's somewhat astounding how prescient and keyed-in his concerns were back in the late fifties: ecology, cross-culturalization, holism, Buddhism, etc. While his poetics are entirely apt and owned, it may exert an unfortuna
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Jun 02, 2009
Y. Jacintho
rated it:
A great companion when also studying Zen, the work is so spare, like the sun-bleached bones of a wild animal in the desert. All the more startling because you stumble upon them. At first, you can't make out the object, and then suddenly you are filled with rapture.
Like Georgia O'Keefe, you want to take up one perfect bone and hold it up against the sky. You want to see its shape against a backdrop of perfect blue. Each line has its own symmetry. Each line is whittled down by a master More...
Like Georgia O'Keefe, you want to take up one perfect bone and hold it up against the sky. You want to see its shape against a backdrop of perfect blue. Each line has its own symmetry. Each line is whittled down by a master More...
Dec 11, 2008
David
rated it:
He's like a mountain man survivalist... lots of geology, wildlife and outdoorsy chores. My favorites are the intimate sauna poems where he describes his naked family in great detail, which sounds creepy but is actually touching.
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Dec 13, 2011
Tim
rated it:
How Poetry Comes to Me:
It comes blundering over the
Boulders at night, it stays
Frightened outside the
Range of my campfire
I go to meet it at the
Edge of the light
Gary Snyder
It comes blundering over the
Boulders at night, it stays
Frightened outside the
Range of my campfire
I go to meet it at the
Edge of the light
Gary Snyder
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Nov 22, 2008
Ben
rated it:
No poetry has touched me like the poetry of Gary Snyder. Simple, direct, and of-the-earth, Gary Snyder is THE MAN.
Sep 03, 2007
Jen
rated it:
Beat poet Snyder is a beautiful soul with a gift for language. This collection of his work is perfect to keep next to your bed to read poems before you nod off to sleep. I love this one:
For The Children
The rising hills, the slopes,
of statistics
lie before us.
the steep climb
of everything, going up,
up, as we all
go down.
In the next century
or the one beyond that,
they say,
are valleys, pastures,
we can meet More...
For The Children
The rising hills, the slopes,
of statistics
lie before us.
the steep climb
of everything, going up,
up, as we all
go down.
In the next century
or the one beyond that,
they say,
are valleys, pastures,
we can meet More...
Dec 31, 2010
Wil
rated it:
The single book I've carried the farthest and read the most. Was in my backpack everywhere I went until late 2006.
Jan 12, 2012
Emily
rated it: 
I enjoy Snyder's writing when he drifts away from the nature poetry for which he is so well known. But when he's in his element, his talents do not include converting the skeptics like me.
Jun 11, 2008
brendan
rated it:
i knew people throughout college, in all my creative writing and poetry classes, who raved and orgasmed over snyder's nature poetry. while i am not really at a point in life where hyperbolical raving over an author or book i now understand why those acquaintances felt thus. yet, i cannot in good faith recommend this to anyone. merely keep gary snyder in the back of your mind and when you feel an urge for nature poetry that forms the armature modern nature poets hang themselves from.
Oct 30, 2008
Ryan
rated it:
Just picked this back up to clear my head the other day and was reminded of how tranquil but noisey these poems can be. Snyder probably shouldn't be read in the city, but if you close your windows and curtains it might work. Read some of it out loud to hear the sounds his poetry makes - it can sound like walking up a gravel road or like a waterfall. Some of it I just don't understand though . . . a bit more zen than I can be at my age maybe.
Aug 13, 2010
Dan
rated it:
I didn't read every poem in the book, but I'm declaring this one read. It's ok, if you like Californian neo-Buddhism. I found only a couple of these poems truly memorable. The rest were sort-of journal entries by a guy I probably would find too New Agey to enjoy a dinner with. Maybe a cup of coffee. Definitely a hike.
Jun 13, 2008
Michael
rated it:
Yeah...not that the poems were bad (because they really weren't), but having to RECITE THEM...OUT LOUD...IN HARMONY with everyone else in my Honors class has left my view of this work scarred...lol
Apr 11, 2008
Ashleyj
rated it:
Once a logger, GAry Snyder portrays the wilderness, logging, and the scents/colors/sounds of trees so enchantingly and beautiful. One of my favorite poets.
Feb 29, 2008
Ellen
rated it: 
I have slightly complicated feelings about it that i'd be happy to share if anybody wants to know...i just can't sum them up in a couple sentences just yet.
Oct 11, 2007
Kim
rated it:
3 stars only because i already had most of the poems in other books. i'm just a gary snyder completist. :shrug:
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