Gary Snyder

Gary Snyder: Atop Mount Hood in 1947, a copyboy sets course as a poet -  oregonlive.com

Rip Rack

 Lay down these words

Before your mind like rocks.
             placed solid, by hands
In choice of place, set
Before the body of the mind
             in space and time:
Solidity of bark, leaf, or wall
             riprap of things:
Cobble of milky way,
             straying planets,
These poems, people,
             lost ponies with
Dragging saddles—
             and rocky sure-foot trails.
The worlds like an endless
             four-dimensional
Game of Go.
             ants and pebbles
In the thin loam, each rock a word
             a creek-washed stone
Granite: ingrained
             with torment of fire and weight
Crystal and sediment linked hot
             all change, in thoughts,
As well as things.


John Ashbery

  The New Spirit (excerpt) I thought that if I could put it all down, that would be one way. And next the thought came to me that to leave a...