Folger Poetry Board Reading: Gary Snyder (2012)

For the [O.B. Hardison Poetry Series] 2012's Folger Poetry Board Reading, Gary Snyder read from his work in the Folger's [Elizabethan Theatre] on May 14, 2012.

Gary Snyder

About his work Gary Snyder has said, “I try to hold both history and wilderness in mind, that my poems may approach the true measure of things …” Snyder has published 16 books of poetry and prose, including 'No Nature: New and Selected Poems', which was a finalist for the National Book Award; 'Axe Handles', for which he received an American Book Award; and 'Turtle Island', which won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Other honors and awards for his writing include an American Academy of Arts and Letters award, the Bollingen Prize, a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, the Robert Kirsch Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Times, the Shelley Memorial Award, and the Ruth Lilly Award. Snyder was elected a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets in 2003. He is a professor of English at the University of California, Davis.

Excerpts

From "Piute Creek"

…. night air still and the rocks Warm. Sky over endless mountains. All the junk that goes with being human Drops away, hard rock wavers Even the heavy present seems to fail This bubble of a heart. Words and books Like a small creek off a high ledge Gone in the dry air