No Nature

by SNYDER, GARY

• ISBN13: 9780679742524
• ISBN10: 0679742522
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1993-09-07
• Publisher: Pantheon

Summary

"The greatest of living nature poets. . . . It helps us to go on, having Gary Snyder in our midst."--Los Angeles Times. Snyder is the author of many volumes of poetry and prose, including The Practice of the Wild and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Turtle Island. Reading tour. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Author Biography

GARY SNYDER is a poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His accolades include the Pulitzer Prize for poetry (1975), the American Book Award (1984), the Bollingen Prize for Poetry (1997), the John Hay Award for Nature Writing (1997), and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (2008). Often associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance, he is known as “the Poet Laureate of Deep Ecology,” and his poetry reflects an immersion in both Buddhist spirituality and nature. Snyder has translated literature into English from ancient Chinese and modern Japanese. For many years, Snyder served as a faculty member at the University of California, Davis, and he also served for a time on the California Arts Council.

Table of Contents

Preface
from Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems
Riprap
Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout	p. 4
The Late Snow and Lumber Strike of the Summer of Fifty-four	p. 5
Piute Creek	p. 6
Milton by Firelight	p. 7
Above Pate Valley	p. 9
Water	p. 10
Hay for the Horses	p. 11
Thin Ice	p. 12
Nooksack Valley	p. 13
All through the Rains	p. 14
Migration of Birds	p. 15
Toji	p. 16
Kyoto: March	p. 17
The Sappa Creek	p. 18
Goofing Again	p. 19
Cartagena	p. 20
Riprap	p. 21
Cold Mountain Poems
"The path to Han-shan's place is laughable,"	p. 23
"In a tangle of cliffs I chose a place - "	p. 23
"In the mountains it's cold."	p. 23
"Men ask the way to Cold Mountain"	p. 24
"I settled at Cold Mountain long ago,"	p. 24
"Clambering up the Cold Mountain path,"	p. 24
"I have lived at Cold Mountain"	p. 25
"Spring-water in the green creek is clear"	p. 25
"In my first thirty years of life"	p. 25
"I can't stand these bird-songs"	p. 26
"There's a naked bug at Cold Mountain"	p. 26
"Cold Mountain is a house"	p. 26
"Once at Cold Mountain, troubles cease - "	p. 27
"Some critic tried to put me down - "	p. 27
"I've lived at Cold Mountain - how many autumns."	p. 28
"My home was at Cold Mountain from the start,"	p. 28
"When men see Han-shan"	p. 28
from Myths and Texts
Logging
"The morning star is not a star"	p. 34
"But ye shall destroy their altars,"	p. 35
"'Lodgepole Pine: the wonderful reproductive"	p. 36
"Pines, under pines,"	p. 37
"Felix Baran"	p. 38
"Ray Wells, a big Nisqually, and I"	p. 39
"Each dawn is clear"	p. 40
"A green limb hangs in the crotch"	p. 41
"The groves are down"	p. 42
"Lodgepole"	p. 43
Hunting
first shaman song	p. 45
this poem is for birds	p. 46
this poem is for bear	p. 47
this poem is for deer	p. 49
"Sealion, salmon, offshore - "	p. 51
"Flung from demonic wombs"	p. 52
"Now I'll also tell what food"	p. 53
"How rare to be born a human being!"	p. 54
Burning
second shaman song	p. 56
Maudgalyayana saw hell	p. 57
Maitreya the future Buddha	p. 58
"Face in the crook of her neck"	p. 59
John Muir on Mt. Ritter	p. 60
Amitabha's vow	p. 61
"Spikes of new smell driven up nostrils"	p. 62
"Stone-flake and salmon."	p. 64
"'Wash me on home, mama'"	p. 66
the text	p. 67
from Mountains and Rivers Without End
Bubbs Creek Haircut	p. 71
The Blue Sky	p. 76
from The Back Country
Far West
A Berry Feast	p. 84
Marin-an	p. 89
Sixth-Month Song in the Foothills	p. 90
The Spring	p. 91
A Walk	p. 92
Fire in the Hole	p. 93
Burning the Small Dead	p. 95
Foxtail Pine	p. 96
August on Sourdough, A Visit from Dick Brewer	p. 98
Oil	p. 99
Once Only	p. 100
After Work	p. 100
For the Boy Who Was Dodger Point Lookout Fifteen Years Ago	p. 101
Far East
Yase: September	p. 103
Pine River	p. 104
Vapor Trails	p. 105
The Public Bath	p. 106
A Volcano in Kyushu	p. 108
Four Poems for Robin	p. 109
The Firing	p. 112
Work to Do Toward Town	p. 113
Nansen	p. 114
Six Years	p. 115
Kali
For a Stone Girl at Sanchi	p. 132
North Beach Alba	p. 133
Could She See the Whole Real World With her Ghost Breast Eyes Shut Under a Blouse Lid?	p. 134
Night	p. 135
This Tokyo	p. 136
The Manichaeans	p. 138
Mother of the Buddhas, Queen of Heaven, Mother of the Sun; Marici, Goddess of the Dawn	p. 140
On Our Way to Khajuraho	p. 141
Circumambulating Arunachala	p. 142
7: VII	p. 143
Nanao Knows	p. 144
The Truth like the Belly of a Woman Turning	p. 145
For John Chappell	p. 146
Go Round	p. 147
Back
The Old Dutch Woman	p. 149
For the West	p. 150
7. IV. 64	p. 153
Twelve Hours Out of New York After Twenty-Five Days at Sea	p. 154
Across Lamarck Col	p. 155
Hop, Skip, and Jump	p. 156
Beneath My Hand and Eye the Distant Hills, Your Body	p. 157
Through the Smoke Hole	p. 159
from Regarding Wave
Wave	p. 165
In the House of the Rising Sun	p. 166
Song of the Tangle	p. 167
Song of the Slip	p. 168
Song of the Taste	p. 169
Kyoto Born in Spring Song	p. 170
Burning Island	p. 172
Roots	p. 174
Rainbow Body	p. 175
Everybody Lying on Their Stomachs, Head Toward the Candle, Reading, Sleeping, Drawing	p. 177
Shark Meat	p. 178
The Bed in the Sky	p. 179
Kai, Today	p. 180
Not Leaving the House	p. 181
Regarding Wave	p. 182
Revolution in the Revolution in the Revolution	p. 183
What You Should Know to Be a Poet	p. 184
Aged Tamba Temple Plum Tree Song	p. 185
It	p. 186
Running Water Music	p. 188
Sours of the Hills	p. 189
The Wild Edge	p. 190
The Trade	p. 191
To Fire	p. 192
Love	p. 194
Meeting the Mountains	p. 195
Running Water Music II	p. 196
Long Hair	p. 197
Target Practice	p. 199
from Turtle Island
Manzanita
Anasazi	p. 206
The Way West, Underground	p. 207
The Dead by the Side of the Road	p. 209
I Went into the Maverick Bar	p. 211
No Matter, Never Mind	p. 212
The Bath	p. 213
Spel Against Demons	p. 216
Front Lines	p. 218
Control Burn	p. 219
The Call of the Wild	p. 220
Prayer for the Great Family	p. 223
Manzanita	p. 225
Magpie's Song
The Real Work	p. 227
Pine Tree Tops	p. 228
For Nothing	p. 229
Night Herons	p. 230
The Egg	p. 232
By Frazier Creek Falls	p. 234
It Pleases	p. 235
Mother Earth: Her Whales	p. 236
Ethnobotany	p. 239
Straight-Creek - Great Burn	p. 240
Two Fawns That Didn't See the Light This Spring	p. 242
Two Immortals	p. 243
Why Log Truck Drivers Rise Earlier Than Students of Zen	p. 244
"One Should Not Talk to a Skilled Hunter About What Is Forbidden by the Buddha"	p. 245
L M F B R	p. 246
Magpie's Song	p. 247
For the Children
Gen	p. 249
Tomorrow's Song	p. 250
What Happened Here Before	p. 251
Toward Climax	p. 254
Two Logging Songs	p. 258
For the Children	p. 259
As for Poets	p. 260
from Axe Handles
Loops
Axe Handles	p. 266
River in the Valley	p. 267
Berry Territory	p. 269
The Cool Around the Fire	p. 270
Changing Diapers	p. 271
Painting the North San Juan School	p. 272
Fence Posts	p. 273
Look Back	p. 275
Soy Sauce	p. 277
Strategic Air Command	p. 279
Working on the '58 Willys Pickup	p. 280
Getting in the Wood	p. 282
True Night	p. 283
Little Songs for Gaia	p. 286
Nets
Three Deer One Coyote Running in the Snow	p. 293
24:IV:40075, 3:30 PM, n. of Coaldale, Nevada, A Glimpse through a Break in the Storm of the Summit of the White Mountains	p. 294
Talking Late with the Governor about the Budget	p. 295
"He Shot Arrows, But Not at Birds Perching"	p. 296
What Have I Learned	p. 297
Dillingham, Alaska, the Willow Tree Bar	p. 298
Removing the Plate of the Pump on the Hydraulic System of the Backhoe	p. 299
Uluru Wild Fig Song	p. 300
Old Rotting Tree Trunk Down	p. 303
Old Woman Nature	p. 305
The Canyon Wren	p. 306
For All	p. 308
from Left Out in the Rain
Elk Trails	p. 311
Lines on a Carp	p. 313
A Sinecure for P. Whalen	p. 314
Message from Outside	p. 315
Under the Skin of It	p. 316
"dogs, sheep, cows, goats"	p. 317
Seaman's Ditty	p. 318
Poem Left in Sourdough Mountain Lookout	p. 319
Late October Camping in the Sawtooths	p. 320
Point Reyes	p. 321
Makings	p. 322
Longitude 170[actual symbols not reproducible] West, Latitude 35[actual symbols not reproducible] North	p. 323
For Example	p. 324
Bomb Test	p. 325
Dullness in February: Japan	p. 326
The Feathered Robe	p. 327
On Vulture Peak	p. 329
Straits of Malacca 24 Oct 1957	p. 333
The Engine Room, S.S. Sappa Creek	p. 334
The North Coast	p. 336
One Year	p. 337
Three Poems for Joanne	p. 339
Crash	p. 341
Saying Farewell at the Monastery after Hearing the Old Master Lecture on "Return to the Source"	p. 342
Alabaster	p. 343
The Years	p. 344
No Shoes No Shirt No Service	p. 345
High Quality Information	p. 346
The Arts Council Meets in Eureka	p. 347
Arktos	p. 348
Fear Not	p. 349
We Make Our Vows Together with All Beings	p. 350
At White River Roadhouse in the Yukon	p. 351
The Persimmons	p. 352
Tiny Energies	p. 354
No Nature
How Poetry Comes to Me	p. 361
On Climbing the Sierra Matterhorn Again After Thirty-one Years	p. 362
Kusiwoqqobi	p. 363
The Sweat	p. 364
Building	p. 366
Surrounded by Wild Turkeys	p. 368
Off the Trail	p. 369
Word Basket Woman	p. 371
At Tower Peak	p. 373
Right in the Trail	p. 375
Travelling to the Capital	p. 377
Thoughts on Looking at a Samuel Palmer Etching at the Tate	p. 378
Kisiabaton	p. 379
For Lew Welch in a Snowfall	p. 380
Ripples on the Surface	p. 381
Index of Titles and First Lines	p. 383
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.