Now that's a reading ...

I'd like to have been present for: Gary Snyder reading Robert Creeley, as well as his own work. The occasion? Snyder was the recipient of this year's Robert Creeley Award. According to Carly Cassano,

Snyder read some of Creeley’s poems, and even granted his interpretation of one. His reading of his own work was extraordinary to witness, as the genuine hippies around me rocked their heads in an odd caustic, yet welcome remembrance.

Radio guy that I am (and former, at least, genuine hippy), I do hope someone recorded the event.

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A tip of the old hat to Ron Silliman for the link.

Gary Snyder turns another page

It's his birthday, and Edward Byrne has a nice appreciation, complete with video, up over at One Poet's Notes.

He concludes by urging us to read (gads!) Gary Snyder's work (that second link includes the "Smokey the Bear Sutra," one of my favorite middle-period Snyder poems):

I extend the recommendation of his poetry—which I received as an undergraduate thirty-five years ago and that I now repeat to my students each semester—to all readers who wish to discover poems celebrating our regard for nature’s great beauty, or its correspondingly immense power, even while conscientiously confronting us with a complementary sense of personal and social responsibility

And reading some of his poems would be a fit way to celebrate this spring/fall day (depending on where you live on the orb), and to insure that Gary indeed enjoys a happy birthday.

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Update: I couldn't resist. Here's "Smokey the Bear Sutra," with thanks to Terebess Asia Online:

Smokey the Bear Sutra

Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago,
the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite
Void gave a Discourse to all the assembled elements
and energies: to the standing beings, the walking beings,
the flying beings, and the sitting beings -- even grasses,
to the number of thirteen billion, each one born from a
seed, assembled there: a Discourse concerning
Enlightenment on the planet Earth.

"In some future time, there will be a continent called
America. It will have great centers of power called
such as Pyramid Lake, Walden Pond, Mt. Rainier, Big Sur,
Everglades, and so forth; and powerful nerves and channels
such as Columbia River, Mississippi River, and Grand Canyon
The human race in that era will get into troubles all over
its head, and practically wreck everything in spite of
its own strong intelligent Buddha-nature."

"The twisting strata of the great mountains and the pulsings
of volcanoes are my love burning deep in the earth.
My obstinate compassion is schist and basalt and
granite, to be mountains, to bring down the rain. In that
future American Era I shall enter a new form; to cure
the world of loveless knowledge that seeks with blind hunger:
and mindless rage eating food that will not fill it."

And he showed himself in his true form of

SMOKEY THE BEAR

A handsome smokey-colored brown bear standing on his hind legs, showing that he is aroused and watchful.

Bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the truth beneath appearances; cuts the roots of useless attachments, and flings damp sand on the fires of greed and war;

His left paw in the Mudra of Comradely Display -- indicating that all creatures have the full right to live to their limits and that deer, rabbits, chipmunks, snakes, dandelions, and lizards all grow in the realm of the Dharma;

Wearing the blue work overalls symbolic of slaves and laborers, the countless men oppressed by a civilization that claims to save but often destroys;

Wearing the broad-brimmed hat of the West, symbolic of the forces that guard the Wilderness, which is the Natural State of the Dharma and the True Path of man on earth: all true paths lead through mountains --

With a halo of smoke and flame behind, the forest fires of the kali-yuga, fires caused by the stupidity of those who think things can be gained and lost whereas in truth all is contained vast and free in the Blue Sky and Green Earth of One Mind;

Round-bellied to show his kind nature and that the great earth has food enough for everyone who loves her and trusts her;

Trampling underfoot wasteful freeways and needless suburbs; smashing the worms of capitalism and totalitarianism;

Indicating the Task: his followers, becoming free of cars, houses, canned foods, universities, and shoes; master the Three Mysteries of their own Body, Speech, and Mind; and fearlessly chop down the rotten trees and prune out the sick limbs of this country America and then burn the leftover trash.

Wrathful but Calm. Austere but Comic. Smokey the Bear will
Illuminate those who would help him; but for those who would hinder or
slander him,

HE WILL PUT THEM OUT.

Thus his great Mantra:

Namah samanta vajranam chanda maharoshana
Sphataya hum traka ham nam

"I DEDICATE MYSELF TO THE UNIVERSAL DIAMOND
BE THIS RAGING FURY DESTROYED"

And he will protect those who love woods and rivers,
Gods and animals, hobos and madmen, prisoners and sick
people, musicians, playful women, and hopeful children:

And if anyone is threatened by advertising, air pollution, television,
or the police, they should chant SMOKEY THE BEAR'S WAR SPELL:

DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS

And SMOKEY THE BEAR will surely appear to put the enemy out
with his vajra-shovel.

Now those who recite this Sutra and then try to put it in practice will accumulate merit as countless as the sands of Arizona and Nevada.

Will help save the planet Earth from total oil slick.

Will enter the age of harmony of man and nature.

Will win the tender love and caresses of men, women, and beasts.

Will always have ripe blackberries to eat and a sunny spot under a pine tree to sit at.

AND IN THE END WILL WIN HIGHEST PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT.

thus have we heard.

(may be reproduced free forever)

Gary Snyder Wins Ruth Lilly Prize

Robert Lee Brewer posts the news release over at Poetic Asides. It's a prize that actually carries a substantial reward (one hundred thousand dollars!), so it's well won.

And it's certainly a better use of the Poetry Foundation's money than most.

Snyder joins John Ashbery as the only other New American poet to be awarded the prize. Previous winners, though, have included poets writing in a number of the other tendencies of American poetry: Adrienne Rich, Philip Levine, Anthony Hecht, Mona Van Duyn, Hayden Carruth, David Wagoner, John Ashbery, Charles Wright, Donald Hall, A.R. Ammons, Gerald Stern, William Matthews (Sebastian's dad), W.S. Merwin, Maxine Kumin, Carl Dennis, Yusef Komunyakaa, Lisel Mueller, Linda Pastan, Kay Ryan, C.K. Williams, Richard Wilbur, and Lucille Clifton. It's awarded to "a living poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition."

The first Howl

Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg, on a hitch-hiking trip to the Pacific Northwest in 1956, decided to spend February 13 & 14 on the campus of Reed College, Snyder's alma mater, giving poetry readings. The February 14th reading was recorded, and the tape was "duly labeled, cataloged, and then overlooked in the college’s library for more than 50 years. Literary scholar John Suiter rediscovered [it] last summer while researching a biography of poet Gary Snyder." The recording is the earliest known recording of Howl, the poem that a few months later established Ginsberg's fame and became the focus of the media event that announced the Beat Generation to the world at large.

The College site hosts a version of the recording that's supposed to be streamable, but I had no luck listening; playback was garbled. They say they're aware of problems, and will try to resolve them today.

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In addition to being alma mater to Snyder (class of 1951), Lew Welch ( ’50,) and Philip Whalen (also ’51), Reed was also the undergrad home of linguist Dell Hymes, a friend of Snyder's during their college years. Hymes later went on to make important contributions to the study of Native American texts, particularly those of the Chumash. He always insisted that language be understood within its various social contexts, and so helped found what's now known as sociolinguistics.The Reed site features an informative look at his career.

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The great photo by Dale Smith features Michael McClure, Bob Dylan, and Ginsberg in San Francisco in 1965. It appears to date from the same occasion Larry Keenan documents here.

A hat tip to Ron Silliman for the link to a story about the discovery that ran in the Chicago Tribune.

Snyder: Still "No" to nukes

Gary Snyder's not particularly moved by those who advocate a return to nuclear power in response to global warming:

Keep your eyes peeled for trick arguments trying to lead us back to nuclear power.

Thanks to Paul Gallimore for the link from last May.

Snyder: "It didn't occur to me to think I was powerless ..."

Missed this earlier this year; it's an interview with Gary Snyder from the Guardian. Michael March conducts it, and Snyder talks, among other things, about the relation of his early life to the sense of responsibility toward the social and ecological worlds that has informed his work. It includes this exchange:

MM: When did you realize that it was necessary to be concerned not just with yourself but with your neighborhood and the world as a whole?

GS: I grew up on a small farm with chickens and cows in the woodlands north of Seattle, during the depression. We were extremely poor, but my parents were educated, proud, and thoughtful; their thinking agnostic and socialist. My grandfather had been a speaker for the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) which was strong in the Pacific north-west. My father did some union-organising on a big dam project, the Grand Coulee. This kind of family culture engaged us in discussions and critiques of current events. It was assumed that we would want to consider injustice and suffering in the world, and so we did. In my own work I extended that kind of thinking to include all of nature. It didn't occur to me to think I was powerless and it wouldn't make a difference.

Well worth the few moments it takes to read.

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A tip of the hat to LitKicks.

Old Guy (Still) on the Road

Gary Snyder, great poet of the Pacific coast and its biotic worlds, came through North Carolina recently for the first time since the late 70s - 1978, I think, when Paul Gallimore of Long Branch organized a reading for him at UNCA. The after party back then was actually at my humble abode - which was even more humble in those post grad-school days. This past April 19, he read at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory as part of the school's great reading series.

Snyder's history is well-known, thanks in some part to the efforts of his fellow writers - especially Jack Kerouac, who based his character Japhy Rider, of Dharma Bums, on the Snyder of the early fifties. As a student, Snyder had found summer work as a forest ranger, a logger, and a seaman. In 1955 he worked on a trail crew at Yosemite National Park, and there he began writing the first poems that he later published. He was integral to the Beat scene in San Francisco (attended the 1955 Six Gallery reading of Ginsberg's Howl that signaled the beginning of its major momentum), but then, the next year, went to Japan. He spent most of the following 12 years there, studying Buddhism in a monastery. He returned to the US more-or-less for good in 1968, and has since had a long, enlightening career as poet and environmental activist, one who, in both roles, brings a deeply informed (and practiced) Buddhist perspective to his work.

Snyder said, "As a poet I hold the most archaic values on earth. They go back to the Neolithic: the fertility of the soil, the magic of animals, the power-vision in solitude, the terrifying initiation and rebirth, the love and ecstasy of the dance, the common work of the tribe."

Strikes me those are still good values.


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Update, July 31 : Excerpts from Snyder's reading undulated through the airwaves this past Sunday on WordPlay, and the show is now available for streaming or podcast from the WPVM website; just click on the Archive link and scroll down.

And another update, August 6: Other members of the WordPlay team were out of commission yesterday, so I ran the Snyder show again - which means it'll be available for play/download for another week.
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I took the photo of Gary Snyder and Thomas Rain Crowe at the reception following Snyder's reading in Hickory. There are more here, over on Facebook (no membership required) .

Inde ... er, Interdependence Day

Old friend Paul Gallimore (he's just turned 60, so he's an old friend now in more than one sense) sends out a poem of Gary Snyder's from a few years back today:

For All

Ah to be alive
on a mid-September morn
fording a stream
barefoot, pants rolled up,
holding boots, pack on,
sunshine, ice in the shallows,
northern rockies.

Rustle and shimmer of icy creek waters
stones turn underfoot, small and hard as toes
cold nose dripping
singing inside
creek music, heart music,
smell of sun on gravel.

I pledge allegiance

I pledge allegiance to the soil
of Turtle Island,
and to the beings who thereon dwell
one ecosystem
in diversity
under the sun
With joyful interpenetration for all.

Great fun. Thanks to Paul for bringing that song to mind.