Gary Snyder is a poet, activist, essayist and lecturer. One of last of the original voices of the Beat Generation, Snyder has been publishing poems since the last fifty years. His commitment to sustainability, arises from his deep complex relationship with the natural world throughout his life. Snyder is well known for tracing a deep connection between humanity and nature through his work.
He was an environmentalist before the word became common in public domain. Which is probably why many of his poems have featured in environmental poetry anthologies around the world. Snyder has had a lifelong relationship with many Eastern religions, he immerses himself deeply in the Japanese culture, and the ecological wonders of the area.
Snyder’s poetic sophistication, his cosmopolitan attitude, and his ability to straddle various worlds has made him one of the most interesting contemporary poets of his time. The last of the Beat generation, Snyder’s work is still fresh and contemporary.
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A Spring Night in Shokoku-ji
Eight years ago this May
We walked under cherry blossoms
At night in an orchard in Oregon.
All that I wanted then
Is forgotten now, but you.
Here in the night
In a garden of the old capital
I feel the trembling ghost of Yugao
I remember your cool body
Naked under a summer cotton dress.
***
An Autumn Morning in Shokoku-ji
Last night watching the Pleiades,
Breath smoking in the moonlight,
Bitter memory like vomit
Choked my throat.
I unrolled a sleeping bag
On mats on the porch
Under thick autumn stars.
In dream you appeared
(Three times in nine years)
Wild, cold, and accusing.
I woke shamed and angry:
The pointless wars of the heart.
Almost dawn. Venus and Jupiter.
The first time I have
Ever seen them close.
