This sturdy and substantive volume brings together essays, travel journals, letters, poems, and translations by Gary Snyder. For five decades, he has explored what he describes as "the mytho-poetic interface of society, ecology, and language." Snyder's poetry has garnered a Pulitzer Prize ("Turtle Island") and the Bollingen Poetry Prize ("Mountains and Rivers Without End"). This volume contains poems from different stages in his career. Also included are new translations of many elegant Japanese and Chinese poems.
Essays on culture, ecology, and the wild mind vividly convey Snyder's reverence for the natural world and the spiritual value of living close to the earth. An interview with the East West Journal gives further testimony to the important role spiritual practice has played in his life as a Buddhist. Excerpts from Snyder's travel journals reveal his keen sensitivity to details and to the poetics of place as he explores Saigon, Singapore, Kyoto, Ceylon, New Delhi, Australia, and Dharamshala.
