No Nature : New and Selected Poems

Rating:
Summary: Stripping poetry down to its bare bones.
Review: Gary Snyder is a master of condensation. Somehow, using an economy of words, he conveys a clear sense of "the moment" -- sitting on a mountain top; snuggling by the fire; walking on a crowded street. It's a new kind of minimalist poetry that, once read, makes some of the older stuff seem, well, old. Snyder's forte is poems about nature. One of my favorites, called "Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout" consists of just 10 lines. But I've read it a hundred times, and the words still ring true in my mind. He writes: "I cannot remember things I once read / A few friends, but they are in cities. / Drinking cold snow-water from a tin cup / Looking down for miles / Through high still air." "On Nature" is a collection of Snyder's best and most important works. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Stripping poetry down to its bare bones.
Review: Gary Snyder is a master of condensation. Somehow, using an economy of words, he conveys a clear sense of "the moment" -- sitting on a mountain top; snuggling by the fire; walking on a crowded street. It's a new kind of minimalist poetry that, once read, makes some of the older stuff seem, well, old. Snyder's forte is poems about nature. One of my favorites, called "Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout" consists of just 10 lines. But I've read it a hundred times, and the words still ring true in my mind. He writes: "I cannot remember things I once read / A few friends, but they are in cities. / Drinking cold snow-water from a tin cup / Looking down for miles / Through high still air." "On Nature" is a collection of Snyder's best and most important works. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: The best of Gary Snyder, America's Zen Poet
Review: I first heard of Gary Snyder when I stumbled across his answer to the question as to whether he would rather hear a poem by a raccoon or a possum. Snyder's answer was: "A raccoon's poem is alert and inquisitive, and amazes you by what a mess it makes. A possum's poem seems sort of slow and dumb at first, but then it rolls over. When you get close to it, it spits in your eye." I am not sure there is a clear cut answer there, but then Snyder, who received the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1975 for "Turtle Island," was first identified with the Beat movement before becoming an important spokesperson for communal living and ecological activism, so expecting him to choose between animal poems is probably a tad ambitious.

Snyder's poetry embodies the open-form experimentation of Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg and the Beats, as well as various "naked poetry" schools and movements from the 1960s to the present. He has also been strongly influenced at times by Japanese haikus and has listed among his influential/favorite poets Du Fu, Lorca, Basho, Pound, Yeats, Buson, Bai Ju-yi, Li He, Su Shih, Homer, Mira Bhai, and Kalidasa. Called by many a "Zen poet," Snyder's work is as likely to display a sense of humor as it is to deal with theological and aesthetic elements drawn from Zen and classical Japanese culture (e.g, "Axe Handles"). Snyder's earliest poems deal with the images and experiences he had working as a logger and ranger in the Pacific Northwest, which obviously instilled in him a love for not only nature but that which is ancient and mystical (e.g, "For All"). Of course, with a poet, it is always best to let the author speak in their own voice:

"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

"No Nature: New and Selected Poems" contains parts of eight earlier published books by Snyder. This particular volume, published in 1992 and nominated for a National Book Award, contains an impressive selection of Snyder's best work across his long career.

Rating:
Summary: The best of Gary Snyder, America's Zen Poet
Review: I first heard of Gary Snyder when I stumbled across his answer to the question as to whether he would rather hear a poem by a raccoon or a possum. Snyder's answer was: "A raccoon's poem is alert and inquisitive, and amazes you by what a mess it makes. A possum's poem seems sort of slow and dumb at first, but then it rolls over. When you get close to it, it spits in your eye." I am not sure there is a clear cut answer there, but then Snyder, who received the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1975 for "Turtle Island," was first identified with the Beat movement before becoming an important spokesperson for communal living and ecological activism, so expecting him to choose between animal poems is probably a tad ambitious.

Snyder's poetry embodies the open-form experimentation of Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg and the Beats, as well as various "naked poetry" schools and movements from the 1960s to the present. He has also been strongly influenced at times by Japanese haikus and has listed among his influential/favorite poets Du Fu, Lorca, Basho, Pound, Yeats, Buson, Bai Ju-yi, Li He, Su Shih, Homer, Mira Bhai, and Kalidasa. Called by many a "Zen poet," Snyder's work is as likely to display a sense of humor as it is to deal with theological and aesthetic elements drawn from Zen and classical Japanese culture (e.g, "Axe Handles"). Snyder's earliest poems deal with the images and experiences he had working as a logger and ranger in the Pacific Northwest, which obviously instilled in him a love for not only nature but that which is ancient and mystical (e.g, "For All"). Of course, with a poet, it is always best to let the author speak in their own voice:

"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

"No Nature: New and Selected Poems" contains parts of eight earlier published books by Snyder. This particular volume, published in 1992 and nominated for a National Book Award, contains an impressive selection of Snyder's best work across his long career.

Rating:
Summary: Change your view of life
Review: This book will change your view of the planet you live on and the life you live on it. Pulitzer prize winner Gary Snyder is a voice that needs to be heard (along with others, such as Wendell Berry)to balance the noise we are inundated with via tv, newspapers, etc. These poems take us beyond issues such as "patriotism" and "nationalism" or even "environmentalism" -- and on to more global and universal citizenship issues of which we all need significantly greater awareness.

Gary Snyder should be on even more bookshelves than he already is.

Rating:
Summary: Change your view of life
Review: This book will change your view of the planet you live on and the life you live on it. Pulitzer prize winner Gary Snyder is a voice that needs to be heard (along with others, such as Wendell Berry)to balance the noise we are inundated with via tv, newspapers, etc. These poems take us beyond issues such as "patriotism" and "nationalism" or even "environmentalism" -- and on to more global and universal citizenship issues of which we all need significantly greater awareness.

Gary Snyder should be on even more bookshelves than he already is.