…has won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Though he spends too much time outdoors for UD’s taste, she’s always been impressed with his ability — shared by very few other poets — to convey the euphoric intensity you feel when you’re in communion with a fully living world.
Regarding Wave
The voice of the Dharma
the voice
now
A shimmering bell
through all.
Every hill, still.
Every tree alive. Every leaf.
All the slopes flow.
old woods, new seedlings,
tall grasses plumes.
Dark hollows; peaks of light.
wind stirs the cool side
Each leaf living.
All the hills.
The Voice
is a wife
to
him still.
Wedded to the natural world, thrilled by its loving, ringing voice, Snyder expresses in these short lines his condition of tense, excited receptivity — his hyper-acute listening to it all.
The poem is a series of seeming oppositions – old and new, dark and light – but everything’s gathered up in the timeless resonance of a living earth. The word “still” — repeated in the poem — is its own opposition, suggesting at the same time the poet’s motionless trance in the face of the shimmering bell-like world, and the endurance of the world, still alive, always alive, and singing.
April 30th, 2008 at 12:11PM
Thank you for this post.
A related post of my own:
"Happy Rohatsu,"
http://www.xanga.com/m759/48323914/item.html
April 30th, 2008 at 3:29PM
You’re welcome, Steven. I’m opening your post now. Thanks.
April 30th, 2008 at 3:37PM
I assume that there was some gentle sarcasm intended in spending "too much time outdoors."
Like all good Reed College undergraduates, I’m sure that GS learned to balance his mountaineering time with his library time.
But the zendo time — is that outdoors or indoors?
April 30th, 2008 at 4:07PM
Hi Chas: Gentle sarcasm definitely intended. Though there’s a photo of me as a 3 year-old or whatever being wheeled outside in my little stroller by my older sister and I look really pissed. My mother said as a baby I hated to go outside.
May 1st, 2008 at 10:23AM
(I tried submitting this comment earlier, so I hope that it doesn’t show up twice.)
Speaking of favorite poets: BBC Radio 4’s Tuesday afternoon play was a fictionalized account of a day in the life of Philip Larkin. You can listen to it (as a RealAudio stream) for up to six days after the original broadcast. Go here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/afternoon_play.shtml
May 1st, 2008 at 10:43AM
Thanks, philosoraptor! Though I’m preparing for it to be very nasty.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:10PM
[...] his recent Ruth Lilly Prize not as an honor for his poetry alone but, rather, as a sign of his responsibility [...]
June 13th, 2009 at 8:47AM
Why was my comment deleted?
There is a connection here from Gary Synder’s writings and these"accidental drownings" that are occuring in the US(specifically in WI,MO,MN,ID,TN) during the months of oct – some of June. They stop in the summer months…every year like clockwork. They have spray painted quotes from Gary’s writings. They are only killing young,intelligent men who will go far and have a promising future….they are killing them after they leave a bar or party…They are killing the white men who are "drinking to it" as Gary would say. Just research it. Please open your eyes.
Emmy award winning journalist,Kristi Piehl, is working on these "drownings" and making the case to bring more info to the FBI who obviously do not want to get involved and admit that there is someone killing our young men.