This is probably Gary Snyder's magnum opus - his Leaves of Grass. It's been forty years in the writing, and though it may no longer be subject to revision, it seems like the summation of a lifetime of study, and writing. Mr. Snyder refers to it as a "sutra," which is a Buddhist tract, akin to a gospel - it's the good news. And this is the good news of its title - Mountains and Rivers Without End, based on a scroll painting of the same name, that begins with a verbal trip through the scroll and out into the world from 1956 to 1996. Gary Snyder is very much of the "no ideas but in things," school, and though some of his descriptions were hard for me to visualize, others were so clear as to hover off the page.

Given our current state of climate crisis, the title is hopeful, I hope it's not unduly optimistic.