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Danger on Peaks: Poems
In his first collection of new poems since Axe Handles (1983), Gary Snyder includes fifty-five new poems and prose poems. As longtime readers will recognize, this collection is unique in Snyder’s oeuvre, finding the poet experimenting with a wide variety of styles, including an extended foray in the Japanese form haibun, "making it an American form," as the poet remarks. Two sections of poems exploring "intimate immediate life, gossip and insight" are some of the poet’s most personal work.
Danger on Peaks begins with the poet’s first climb of Mount St. Helens on August 13, 1945, and his learning on the morning after his descent about the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Again the poet visits Mount St. Helens in 2000 to view the blast site of the 1980 eruption. Then follow poems for the Buddhas of Bamiyan Valley and the World Trade Towers. More than a mere gathering of unrelated poems, Danger on Peaks is a constructed work, where every part contributes to the whole.
Danger on Peaks begins with the poet’s first climb of Mount St. Helens on August 13, 1945, and his learning on the morning after his descent about the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Again the poet visits Mount St. Helens in 2000 to view the blast site of the 1980 eruption. Then follow poems for the Buddhas of Bamiyan Valley and the World Trade Towers. More than a mere gathering of unrelated poems, Danger on Peaks is a constructed work, where every part contributes to the whole.
112 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
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About the author
Gary Snyder
323 books645 followersGary Snyder is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate of Deep Ecology". Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the American Book Award. His work, in his various roles, reflects an immersion in both Buddhist spirituality and nature. He has translated literature into English from ancient Chinese and modern Japanese. For many years, Snyder was an academic at the University of California, Davis, and for a time served as a member of the California Arts Council.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
October 27, 2020
I thought, forest fires burning to the north!
yellow nomex jacket thrown in the cab, hard-hat, boots,
I gunned the truck up the dirt-road scrambling,
and came out on a flat stretch with a view:
shimmering blue-green streamers and a red glow down the sky—
Stop. Storms on the sun. Solar winds going by
— — —
Finally floating in cool water
red sun ball sinking
through a smoky dusty haze
rumble of bigrigs,
constant buzz of cars on the 5;
at the pool of Motel 6
in Buttonwillow,
south end of the giant valley,
ghost of ancient Lake Tulare
sunset splash.
— — —
Up along the Kamo river
northwest to higher ground.
After midnight New Year's eve:
the great bell of the Gion
one hundred eight times
deeply booms through the town.
From across the valley
it's a dark whisper
echoing in your liver,
mending your
fragile heart.
September 24, 2015
This is a collection of poetry and some reflective prose--usually as background to the poetry--published in 2005, when Snyder was 75. He put out another book of poems in 2013 and 2015--at 85--which I have not yet read. I guess I have been reading Snyder off and on all my life, but not lately much at all. I read this because I recently read The Book of Haikus by Kerouac, not liking it much, but in it he pays homage to Snyder, who was associated with the Beats through friendships with Kerouac, Ginsberg, Philip Whalen, others, though I never saw him as that much connected to the crazy life decided in such works as On the Road. Snyder was and is a serious scholar, an environmentalist, a life long Buddhist who spent much of his life in Japan.
This is a very intimate book of poems, some of them looking back on his life, with a wide range of topics, some of them maintaining a very current sense of activism and spiritualism especially with respect to nature. I liked reading them very much. Felt like a series of letters from an old friend. If you ant to check him out, try Turtle Island, or The Old Ways or Axe Handles. There's a lot there to help you create some quiet reverence for the earth. I have read lately later poems from Mary Oliver and Donald Hall and I just don't think you can expect the same kind of passion and vibrancy in the poems of an eight year old compared to their works in their thirties. But this book feels still vital and real and committed to language and the planet. I may have felt connected to it more because I just drove through and hiked in the western country he describes.
This is a very intimate book of poems, some of them looking back on his life, with a wide range of topics, some of them maintaining a very current sense of activism and spiritualism especially with respect to nature. I liked reading them very much. Felt like a series of letters from an old friend. If you ant to check him out, try Turtle Island, or The Old Ways or Axe Handles. There's a lot there to help you create some quiet reverence for the earth. I have read lately later poems from Mary Oliver and Donald Hall and I just don't think you can expect the same kind of passion and vibrancy in the poems of an eight year old compared to their works in their thirties. But this book feels still vital and real and committed to language and the planet. I may have felt connected to it more because I just drove through and hiked in the western country he describes.
February 15, 2016
A collection of prose and poetry, I read this alongside Fire Season. Gary Snyder worked summers as a fire lookout and wrote poetry and meditations inspired by his experiences on the peaks.
December 29, 2022
I get the sense of Snyder as a poet guide to the natural world. He knows the names of everything and observes them closely—cormorant scat, the smell of laurel. Generations from now, readers may rely on Snyder’s work to mentally reconstruct the California landscape. Reading him like this, each book chronologically, is like taking a journey.
February 7, 2024
One of my dear sweet old favorites that I revisit anytime I have to be brave in the face of something hard.
June 13, 2009
The review I wrote for LitKicks:
Near the beginning of Gary Snyder's new book, the poet asks, "Who wouldn't take the chance to climb a snowpeak and get the long view?" While the question is part of a piece about climbing Mt. St. Helens, it can be read as an invitation as well -- who wouldn't take the chance to follow him into Danger on Peaks and see the view? The long view -- mountains and loved ones (past and present) and the land -- offers glimpses of "beings living or not, beings or not,/ inside or outside of time", and is one well worth beholding.
But the book is more than just a pretty view. Informed by Snyder's Buddhist ethic, it gives us a way to look at what we see, and it's clear throughout the book -- from the peaks of upheaval to the valley between them -- that the cycle itself has something to teach us if we'll pay attention.
Danger on Peaks is Snyder's first collection of entirely new poems since Axe Handles, which was published in 1983. With a mixture of styles ranging from prose poems to haiku, the book is divided into six sections and takes its title from a poem in its fifth, "For Carole":
The whole book is a journey, and each successive poem leads the reader (in this case, me) a little further; it's definitely not a random collection that can be skipped through at will. Reading the entire collection is an experience akin to going on a pleasantly challenging hike with a knowledgeable guide who loves the land he travels. The path Snyder takes here goes from the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens to reflections on people -- friends and family -- he's known to the Taliban's destruction of the large Buddhas in Bamiyan and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Near the beginning of the book, he writes of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and says in the poem "Atomic Dawn":
I think this book is a testament to that. Whether it's more direct, as in the poems in the "After Bamiyan" section, or less so, like the poems written about friends and family, the book is constructive and respectful, understanding of life, both in place and part of a whole.
I could choose many examples of this from the book, but I've decided to leave you with a couple of passages from this poem.
For Philip Zenshin Whalen
d. 26 June 2002
(and for 33 pine trees)
Load of logs
chains cinched down and double-checked
the truck heads slowly up the hill
...
I will think of you
pines from this mountain
as you shelter people in the Valley
years to come
Though our roles may change, we're all part of something. Gary Snyder does well to remind us.
Near the beginning of Gary Snyder's new book, the poet asks, "Who wouldn't take the chance to climb a snowpeak and get the long view?" While the question is part of a piece about climbing Mt. St. Helens, it can be read as an invitation as well -- who wouldn't take the chance to follow him into Danger on Peaks and see the view? The long view -- mountains and loved ones (past and present) and the land -- offers glimpses of "beings living or not, beings or not,/ inside or outside of time", and is one well worth beholding.
But the book is more than just a pretty view. Informed by Snyder's Buddhist ethic, it gives us a way to look at what we see, and it's clear throughout the book -- from the peaks of upheaval to the valley between them -- that the cycle itself has something to teach us if we'll pay attention.
Danger on Peaks is Snyder's first collection of entirely new poems since Axe Handles, which was published in 1983. With a mixture of styles ranging from prose poems to haiku, the book is divided into six sections and takes its title from a poem in its fifth, "For Carole":
Her lithe leg
proud, skeptical,
passionate, trained
by the
heights
by the
danger on peaks
The whole book is a journey, and each successive poem leads the reader (in this case, me) a little further; it's definitely not a random collection that can be skipped through at will. Reading the entire collection is an experience akin to going on a pleasantly challenging hike with a knowledgeable guide who loves the land he travels. The path Snyder takes here goes from the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens to reflections on people -- friends and family -- he's known to the Taliban's destruction of the large Buddhas in Bamiyan and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Near the beginning of the book, he writes of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and says in the poem "Atomic Dawn":
Horrified, blaming scientists and politicians and the governments of the world, I swore a vow to myself, something like, "By the purity and beauty and permanence of Mt. St. Helens, I will fight against this cruel destructive power and those who would seek to use it, for all my life."
I think this book is a testament to that. Whether it's more direct, as in the poems in the "After Bamiyan" section, or less so, like the poems written about friends and family, the book is constructive and respectful, understanding of life, both in place and part of a whole.
I could choose many examples of this from the book, but I've decided to leave you with a couple of passages from this poem.
For Philip Zenshin Whalen
d. 26 June 2002
(and for 33 pine trees)
Load of logs
chains cinched down and double-checked
the truck heads slowly up the hill
...
I will think of you
pines from this mountain
as you shelter people in the Valley
years to come
Though our roles may change, we're all part of something. Gary Snyder does well to remind us.
January 1, 2022
Danger on Peaks by Gary Snyder
I really enjoy Snyder's prose and poetry - his earliest works date back to the 1950s. This largely mountain themed collection was published in 2004, when Snyder was seventy-four years old. There is a lot of sentimentality in his writing here and he is at his best when reflecting.
As for my favorite parts .... I absolutely loved the chapter on Mt. St. Helens. It conveyed a lot of personal sentiment in me. Although I have climbed, hiked and biked around and even skied down this majestic mountain, I was but a little boy living in the midwest when St. Helens erupted in 1980 and knew nothing of the Pacific Northwest. But there is a lot of history and nostalgia that I gleaned from living in Washington for a decade. The Welsh call this type of longing "hiraeth". I will admit I mostly read poetry for these types of experiences and Snyder ... well let's just say there are few who are his equal in this regard. One can practically smell the pine needles, feel the dampness of the rain or hear the blast of the mountain forty years ago.
The book ends with a powerful chapter on Bamiyan , Afghanistan. This locale for centuries were the home to the famous buddhist statues - before the Taliban destroyed them. Snyder argues that society needs to hold on to religious works of art and it is not enough to invoke Buddhist themes that all material things decay and cease to exist eventually.
5 stars. It is impressive that an author can produce such a profound work after fifty years of writing.
I really enjoy Snyder's prose and poetry - his earliest works date back to the 1950s. This largely mountain themed collection was published in 2004, when Snyder was seventy-four years old. There is a lot of sentimentality in his writing here and he is at his best when reflecting.
As for my favorite parts .... I absolutely loved the chapter on Mt. St. Helens. It conveyed a lot of personal sentiment in me. Although I have climbed, hiked and biked around and even skied down this majestic mountain, I was but a little boy living in the midwest when St. Helens erupted in 1980 and knew nothing of the Pacific Northwest. But there is a lot of history and nostalgia that I gleaned from living in Washington for a decade. The Welsh call this type of longing "hiraeth". I will admit I mostly read poetry for these types of experiences and Snyder ... well let's just say there are few who are his equal in this regard. One can practically smell the pine needles, feel the dampness of the rain or hear the blast of the mountain forty years ago.
The book ends with a powerful chapter on Bamiyan , Afghanistan. This locale for centuries were the home to the famous buddhist statues - before the Taliban destroyed them. Snyder argues that society needs to hold on to religious works of art and it is not enough to invoke Buddhist themes that all material things decay and cease to exist eventually.
5 stars. It is impressive that an author can produce such a profound work after fifty years of writing.
April 15, 2021
I've read Gary Snyder a few times (since first reading him in a class in college) and I like his approach to nature and the way he writes about the natural world, so I enjoyed this but was not blown away. At times, Snyder reminds me of Mary Oliver, but I think I enjoy Oliver's poetry even more. A solid collection though!
April 7, 2008
"If you want to get a view of the world you live in, climb a little rocky mountain with a neat small peak. But the big snowpeaks pierce the realm of clouds and cranes, rest in the zone of . . . writhing crackling dragons . . . into a pure transparency of blue" (7, "The Climb).
Understanding the fear of falling (for Christsake: Danger on Peaks!) is fundamental to understanding this collection. For any fear to be remedied--not repressed or redirected--one first must accept that fear, and not as something to conquer or control. If your ego must conquer something to understand it, Snyder suggests climbing "a little rocky mountain with a neat small peak," which will ultimately only present you with a mediocre view of your rented house, your fenced-in woodchip cheap and barren backyard, the sad tarpits of society's totem pole, the god-shaped holes, a cube-shaped existence. Once you get past the fear of falling though, you can look for "the big snowpeaks," which in this collection are the instances when Snyder seems playful while still being full of mystery and wisdom.
Understanding the fear of falling (for Christsake: Danger on Peaks!) is fundamental to understanding this collection. For any fear to be remedied--not repressed or redirected--one first must accept that fear, and not as something to conquer or control. If your ego must conquer something to understand it, Snyder suggests climbing "a little rocky mountain with a neat small peak," which will ultimately only present you with a mediocre view of your rented house, your fenced-in woodchip cheap and barren backyard, the sad tarpits of society's totem pole, the god-shaped holes, a cube-shaped existence. Once you get past the fear of falling though, you can look for "the big snowpeaks," which in this collection are the instances when Snyder seems playful while still being full of mystery and wisdom.
January 12, 2018
when i picked up this book from library, two things attracted me to borrow this - 1. the title of the book reminded me of david lynch and mark frost's creation, "twin peaks", and 2. i read one gary snyder poem, and it intrigued me to borrow this book to read more of his poems.
some years ago, i read, one of my all-time most favourite writers, jack kerouac's "the dharma bums" where he embarked on a journey to climb a mountain and to stay in a house nearby (perhaps) with one of his friends accompanying him. yes, that friend was gary snyder. this book of poems actually four-dimensional. it works on as journal, poem, observation, and observation as/in poems. i haven't read much beat poetry except allen ginsberg but this one also has that beatnik approach which i quite liked. snyder took the poems in spiritual plane through the perspective of a environmentalist which he is. the poems are not chronologically arranged but they still has its beatness. the poems are intricate to nature. nature becomes the integral part not only of the poems but also of the poet or vice-versa.
reading this book is a unique experience, for it is experimental and different from the poetry i have read before, as far as i can guess.
p.s. also reading this, it reminded me of jerry horne, benjamin horne's brother, in the third season of "twin peaks"- "twin peaks:the return" where he took a trip to the forests, but snyder was not lost as jerry comically was in the show. :D
some years ago, i read, one of my all-time most favourite writers, jack kerouac's "the dharma bums" where he embarked on a journey to climb a mountain and to stay in a house nearby (perhaps) with one of his friends accompanying him. yes, that friend was gary snyder. this book of poems actually four-dimensional. it works on as journal, poem, observation, and observation as/in poems. i haven't read much beat poetry except allen ginsberg but this one also has that beatnik approach which i quite liked. snyder took the poems in spiritual plane through the perspective of a environmentalist which he is. the poems are not chronologically arranged but they still has its beatness. the poems are intricate to nature. nature becomes the integral part not only of the poems but also of the poet or vice-versa.
reading this book is a unique experience, for it is experimental and different from the poetry i have read before, as far as i can guess.
p.s. also reading this, it reminded me of jerry horne, benjamin horne's brother, in the third season of "twin peaks"- "twin peaks:the return" where he took a trip to the forests, but snyder was not lost as jerry comically was in the show. :D
April 18, 2021
As accessible a book of poetry as can be, revealing days in the life of a poet, with small first-person stories set presumably in his life from settings like airports and on the way to pick up visiting poets and eating an elk burger at an Oregon drive-in. All brought together in reflections on large public tragedies that span Snyder's life -- Mount St. Helens' eruption, the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and 9/11. Small reflective poems follow each story, and longer poems picked up here and there from his life, maybe remainders left over from his other books, fill out the volume. I read this soon after it was first published. Like a lot of things, I appreciate it even more after 15 years.
June 6, 2021
I was intrigued by the first section of this collection, focusing on the Mount St. Helens eruption, but overall Snyder's approach in these poems is a little too laidback to be immediately engaging, at least compared to his earlier work. This collection is a fine read if you go into it as a memoir rather than a call to be present.
May 3, 2025
Northwest-set, Buddhist inspired poetry book-ended by the tragedies of the atomic bomb, the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, and the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas and the Twin Towers in 2001. This slim volume of Gary Snyder’s poetry is notable for its sense of place and the strength of his observations. Reaad more at https://bookmanreader.blogspot.com/20...
May 25, 2020
I really enjoyed this little loosely connected collection of poems. It was my first Gary Snyder book after I had him recommended by a friend. I am a relative newbie when it comes to poetry however, and even less adept at reviews, so I cannot really comment further.
June 7, 2021
Pleasant to hear Mr. Snyder reading his own work. Calm, musing observations, rhythmic. The west coast and specifically sections on St Helens, I-5, the Pacific Northwest were particularly poignant for me in that I spent several years in that part of the country.
October 23, 2023
Snyder’s verses take you along with him.
So much like Haiku. Each line of his Poems hold visions, ideas, sights, and sounds. The Reader can hold each word for a moment to savor it. I love to listen to his rhythms.
Four Stars. Beautiful. ****
So much like Haiku. Each line of his Poems hold visions, ideas, sights, and sounds. The Reader can hold each word for a moment to savor it. I love to listen to his rhythms.
Four Stars. Beautiful. ****
December 14, 2025
It’s been fun to explore several books of late that cover my old tromping grounds. This volume reminds me how much levity poetry can have, Snyder’s poem balance between a vast Zen attention to the present and sheer playfulness of language.
“This present moment that lives on to become long ago.”
“This present moment that lives on to become long ago.”
September 3, 2019
4.6 stars.
June 18, 2020
A fine collection of poems, deep in nature and Buddhism. Inspirational.
November 16, 2020
Snyder creates small moments to inhabit.
May 27, 2022
thankful for this little book with my coffee in the mornings.
February 12, 2024
I read this sitting in my truck in Guthrie waiting for Doordash orders
February 24, 2018
it's alright. does bring you to those moments when you're standing somewhere vast and ancient and the feeling of awe arrives. Here's one of the first poems in the book - titled "Atomic Dawn"
The day I first climbed Mt. St. Helens was August 13, 1945.
Spirit Lake was far from the cities of the valley and news came slow. Though the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima August 6 and the second dropped on Nagasaki August 9, photographs didn't appear in the Portland Oregonian until August 12. Those papers must have been driven in to Spirit Lake on the 13th. Early the morning of the 14th I walked over to the lodge to check the bulletin board. There were whole pages of the paper pinned up: photos of a blasted city from the air, the estimate of 150,000 dead in Hiroshima alone, the American scientist quoted saying "nothing will grow there again for seventy years." The morning sun on my shoulders, the fir forest smell and the big tree shadows; feet in thin moccasins feeling the ground, and my heart still one with the snowpeak mountain at my back. Horrified, blaming scientists and politicians and the governments of the world, I swore a vow to myself, something like, "By the purity and beauty and permanence of Mt. St. Helens, I will fight against this cruel destructive power and those who would seek to use it, for all my life."
The day I first climbed Mt. St. Helens was August 13, 1945.
Spirit Lake was far from the cities of the valley and news came slow. Though the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima August 6 and the second dropped on Nagasaki August 9, photographs didn't appear in the Portland Oregonian until August 12. Those papers must have been driven in to Spirit Lake on the 13th. Early the morning of the 14th I walked over to the lodge to check the bulletin board. There were whole pages of the paper pinned up: photos of a blasted city from the air, the estimate of 150,000 dead in Hiroshima alone, the American scientist quoted saying "nothing will grow there again for seventy years." The morning sun on my shoulders, the fir forest smell and the big tree shadows; feet in thin moccasins feeling the ground, and my heart still one with the snowpeak mountain at my back. Horrified, blaming scientists and politicians and the governments of the world, I swore a vow to myself, something like, "By the purity and beauty and permanence of Mt. St. Helens, I will fight against this cruel destructive power and those who would seek to use it, for all my life."
August 28, 2015
Gary Snyder's Danger On Peaks is a collection of prose poetry and verse poetry about mountains, peaks, vales, and people. The speaker, who is most likely Snyder himself, recalls times of hiking and climbing. He observes nature in all its facets--animals, plants, self, inanimate rock and snow.
I cheated and skipped over the very prosey pieces. I'm not into nature writing. In fact, I think I'm becoming a very lazy reader. I used to cling to every syllable, especially to those of the Beats, the Black Mountain poets, and those influenced by them. I think I thought I'd become one or I'd be that much cooler.
Now I know I'm cool and I don't need to say I read Dharma Bums straight through to prove it. In fact, I don't remember what most of Dharma Bums is about because much of the book is not paragraphed and my eyes rolled up into the back of my head as I read because it is so dense and difficult to follow if I wasn't concentrating.
That brings me back to Snyder. The language is evocative and vivid. Still, language couldn't keep me glued to the texty chunks. It's not Snyder's fault; he's very talented. I take all the blame. I'm a bad bad poet. Plus, and this is not Snyder's fault either, I kept thinking the name of the book is Anger On Peaks. Snyder is apparently a lot mellower than I am, too.
I cheated and skipped over the very prosey pieces. I'm not into nature writing. In fact, I think I'm becoming a very lazy reader. I used to cling to every syllable, especially to those of the Beats, the Black Mountain poets, and those influenced by them. I think I thought I'd become one or I'd be that much cooler.
Now I know I'm cool and I don't need to say I read Dharma Bums straight through to prove it. In fact, I don't remember what most of Dharma Bums is about because much of the book is not paragraphed and my eyes rolled up into the back of my head as I read because it is so dense and difficult to follow if I wasn't concentrating.
That brings me back to Snyder. The language is evocative and vivid. Still, language couldn't keep me glued to the texty chunks. It's not Snyder's fault; he's very talented. I take all the blame. I'm a bad bad poet. Plus, and this is not Snyder's fault either, I kept thinking the name of the book is Anger On Peaks. Snyder is apparently a lot mellower than I am, too.
April 24, 2010
While the United States of America was winning the war in Japan, bombing Hiroshima with a nuclear weapon, Gary Snyder was walking up Mount Saint Helens.
A few days later when he heard the news of what our country had done (news traveled slow in those days), he made a vow between himself and the mountain, to fight the forces of destruction that had unleashed this amazing destructive force.
I think anyone who has spent any time on a high mountain, alone with their thoughts and the Spirit, would understand the horror and sudden, peaceful determination which Gary Snyder found himself carrying.
His poetry and stories are always powerful, and while I don't always find myself agreeing with his solutions to fix the world, I always find myself enjoying the simple truths that he writes about, and admire the way that he continues to find joy in the little things and the details.
This collection, and all other writings by Gary Snyder are always recommended.
A few days later when he heard the news of what our country had done (news traveled slow in those days), he made a vow between himself and the mountain, to fight the forces of destruction that had unleashed this amazing destructive force.
I think anyone who has spent any time on a high mountain, alone with their thoughts and the Spirit, would understand the horror and sudden, peaceful determination which Gary Snyder found himself carrying.
His poetry and stories are always powerful, and while I don't always find myself agreeing with his solutions to fix the world, I always find myself enjoying the simple truths that he writes about, and admire the way that he continues to find joy in the little things and the details.
This collection, and all other writings by Gary Snyder are always recommended.
February 20, 2010
The opening section of this book with its dislocation of time and events, of climbing Mt. Helens unaware of the "atomic dawn" elsewhere, sets the stage for the collapsing of time(s) to come. The distinctive "haiku plus prose" style of many of these sections manifests such collapsing, juxtaposing the long and short of it, if you will. Some marvelous images buried in here:
hundreds of white-fronted geese
from nowhere
spill the wind from their wings
wobbling and sideslipping down
(from "Spilling the Wind")
and, of course:
Her lithe leg
proud, skeptical
passionate, trained
by the
heights by the
danger on peaks
(from "For Carole")
Some piercing perceptions, but a little bit up and down, overall. Perhaps, this is a testament to risk taking in his work? Can't wait to immerse myself in this strong voice that I already feel an affinity to.
hundreds of white-fronted geese
from nowhere
spill the wind from their wings
wobbling and sideslipping down
(from "Spilling the Wind")
and, of course:
Her lithe leg
proud, skeptical
passionate, trained
by the
heights by the
danger on peaks
(from "For Carole")
Some piercing perceptions, but a little bit up and down, overall. Perhaps, this is a testament to risk taking in his work? Can't wait to immerse myself in this strong voice that I already feel an affinity to.
October 31, 2008
I entered this book knowing only three things about Gary Snyder:
1. He was often linked with the Beat Movement
2. He was often described as a "nature" poet
3. He taught at UCDavis
A volume written near the end of his career, it seems a little haphazard (but knowing little about his style, that may be purposeful?). Sections of highly descriptive prose interspersed with lyrical, almost haiku-like stanzas comprised the first section, which focused on the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Some of it felt like he wanted to write a memoir rather than a book of poems, but there were some wonderfully lyrical moments later on in the book, and a few fun language moments as well. Probably not the place to start, however, if you are new to Snyder.
1. He was often linked with the Beat Movement
2. He was often described as a "nature" poet
3. He taught at UCDavis
A volume written near the end of his career, it seems a little haphazard (but knowing little about his style, that may be purposeful?). Sections of highly descriptive prose interspersed with lyrical, almost haiku-like stanzas comprised the first section, which focused on the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Some of it felt like he wanted to write a memoir rather than a book of poems, but there were some wonderfully lyrical moments later on in the book, and a few fun language moments as well. Probably not the place to start, however, if you are new to Snyder.
July 24, 2012
Snyder in peak form (ha ha). There's nothing here that will surprise long-time readers, but there's nothing that will disappoint. More of an elegiac quality than before, which comes as no surprise with Snyder moving on through his 70s.
I'd been working on a short poem about a dead baby rabbit the week I was reading this. It made me smile to come across Snyder's short poem on the same topic, which demonstrated to me with great clarity how much I have to learn both about seeing the world and transforming sight into rhythm and sound.
Probably not the place for new readers to start, but a real joy nonetheless.
I'd been working on a short poem about a dead baby rabbit the week I was reading this. It made me smile to come across Snyder's short poem on the same topic, which demonstrated to me with great clarity how much I have to learn both about seeing the world and transforming sight into rhythm and sound.
Probably not the place for new readers to start, but a real joy nonetheless.
November 7, 2012
Unfortunately for me, Gary Snyder reads slow. He uses so many specifics that I don't know that it's easy for me to skip over the small things, regardless of what they're referring to.
He uses fantastic imagery and he's very succinct, especially in his short poems. The mixture of prose and poetry is interesting, but I think I would prefer one over the other, if simply not to upset the pacing of the book as a whole.
I enjoyed both, don't get me wrong, but after reading a chunk of prose I feel like I can't appreciate the poetry as much, and vice versa.
He uses fantastic imagery and he's very succinct, especially in his short poems. The mixture of prose and poetry is interesting, but I think I would prefer one over the other, if simply not to upset the pacing of the book as a whole.
I enjoyed both, don't get me wrong, but after reading a chunk of prose I feel like I can't appreciate the poetry as much, and vice versa.
January 16, 2013
An amazing book dealing with the biggest questions of life, meaning and death. Connects Snyder's early experience mourning the tragedy of atomic bombs on Japan; Mt St Helens exploding; Bamiyan; 9/11. Largely a Buddhist framework for understanding that in this world of changes, all is impermanent.
I read this shortly after losing a very good friend in the mountains and it helped greatly with understanding the loss and what life is.
Snyder's poetry is accessible, enjoyable, and really adds value to daily life.
I read this shortly after losing a very good friend in the mountains and it helped greatly with understanding the loss and what life is.
Snyder's poetry is accessible, enjoyable, and really adds value to daily life.
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