Gary Snyder

You said, that October,
In the tall dry grass by the orchard
When you chose to be free,
"Again someday, maybe ten years."
...

Siwashing It Out Once in Suislaw Forest

I slept under rhododendron
All nightblossoms fell
...

He had driven half the night
From far down San Joaquin
Through Mariposa, up the
Dangerous Mountain roads,
...

Snowfall in March:
I sit in the white glow reading a thesis
About you. Your poems, your life.
...

There are those who love to get dirty
and fix things.
They drink coffee at dawn,
beer after work,
...

Lew Welch just turned up one day,
live as you and me. "Damn, Lew" I said,
"you didn't shoot yourself after all."
"Yes I did" he said,
...

Lay down these words
Before your mind like rocks.
placed solid, by hands
In coice of place, set
...

They didn't hire him
so he ate his lunch alone:
the noon whistle
...

Ch'i Shan Wu Chin
Clearing the mind and sliding in
to that created space,
a web of waters steaming over rocks,
...

The rising hills, the slopes,
of statistics
lie before us,
the steep climb
...

It comes blundering over the
Boulders at night, it stays
Frightened outside the
...

How intelligent he looks!
on his back
both feet caught in my one hand
...

Down valley a smoke haze
Three days heat, after five days rain
Pitch glows on the fir-cones
Across rocks and meadows
...

What my hand fol­lows on your body
Is the line. A stream of love
of heat, of light, what my
eye las­civ­i­ous
...

As for poets
The Earth Poets
Who write small poems,
...

I first saw it in the sixties,
driving a Volkswagen camper
with a fierce gay poet and a
lovely but dangerous girl with a husky voice,
...

Owl
calls,
pollen dust blows
Swirl of light strokes writhing
knot-tying light paths,
...

"O hell, what do mine eyes
with grief behold?"
Working with an old
Singlejack miner, who can sense
...

Swung from the toes out,
Belly-breath riding on the knuckles,
The ten-pound maul lifts up,
Sails in an arc overhead,
...