(Po)etyka Gary’ego Snydera

I turn off the recorder. “You worry too much,” says Gary Snyder. „Don't worry so much, Julia.” We are talking in a hotel room in Chicago, where the poet met with the crowds of readers the previous evening, answered many questions, signed a lot of autographs.

It's early spring 2015. I caught up with him on the road to finish the interview started almost two years earlier during the Miłosz Festival in Krakow. As far as I know, it was the poet's only visit to Poland, and we are left with the volume Why timber truck drivers get up earlier than Zen adepts (containing translations of various quality by as many as ten translators). 

In Chicago, we talked about ecology, the ethics of care, and whether poetry can help the world. „If not poetry, then what?” Snyder asked half jokingly, half seriously. It was around this time that people began to think that the „environmental crisis” - no catastrophe yet - was largely a crisis of the imagination. And if so, then art and poetry actually have something to do about it. 

Snyder's poetry is accessible, to the point and engaging, faithful to people and other sentient beings. In the poem In Everything (from the volume Ax Handles , 1983), the poet expresses his devotion to the Earth:

I pledge allegiance to the soil
of this Turtle Island
and all creatures that dwell here,
to one ecosystem
in all its diversity
under a sun
that joyfully penetrates all. 

(translated by Miroslaw Drabczyk)

„Turtle Island” is the term for the North American continent used by its indigenous peoples; the pledge sets the ethical direction for all of Snyder's work. Adhering to the values ​​of deep ecology, the poet by no means turns away from social issues or civilization, but he postulates „reactivating our membership in the assembly of All Beings.” He writes about it in the wonderful book The Practice of the Wild (1990), which contains Buddhist-infused essays on ecology, art, myths, indigenous North American cultures, language, poetry - and a good, fulfilled human life.

Gary Snyder was born in 1930 in San Francisco and grew up in Portland, Oregon, in close contact with nature. He hiked a lot in the mountains, learning the „etiquette of wildness”. He studied anthropology and literary studies, then oriental languages ​​at the University of Berkeley. He also performed various physical jobs, often related to nature: he built tourist trails in the mountains from crushed stone or looked out for forest fires. He became friends with Allen Ginsberg and other representatives of the nascent beatnik movement. In October 1955, he attended a legendary poetry reading at the Six Gallery in San Francisco, where Allen Ginsberg read The Howl for the first time. Kerouac described the evening in The Dharma Bums (1958): „[...] as Alvah Goldbrook whimpered tearfully through his newest poem ”The Whine," completely drunk, stretching his arms up like the wings of a great bird, everyone was cheering him on: 'Fly! lie down! go' (as in a jam session) and old Rheinhold Cacoethes, Goldbrook the father of all Frisco poets, wept with joy. Japhy read his beautiful poems about Coyote - the god of the North American Indians of the plateau” (trans. Marek Obarski). Goldbook is of course Allen Ginsberg, Cacoethes is Kenneth Rexroth, and Japhy - Japhy Rider - is Gary Snyder. Kerouac portrays him as charismatic and funny, but - to put it mildly - superficial and irresponsible. Snyder said years later that „beat” was a state of mind that affected him too, although not for long. Goldbrook, the father of all Frisco poets, wept for joy. Japhy read his beautiful poems about Coyote - the god of the North American Indians of the plateau” (trans. Marek Obarski). Goldbook is of course Allen Ginsberg, Cacoethes is Kenneth Rexroth, and Japhy - Japhy Rider - is Gary Snyder. Kerouac portrays him as charismatic and funny, but - to put it mildly - superficial and irresponsible. Snyder said years later that „beat” was a state of mind that affected him too, although not for long. Goldbrook, the father of all Frisco poets, wept for joy. Japhy read his beautiful poems about Coyote - the god of the North American Indians of the plateau” (trans. Marek Obarski). Goldbook is of course Allen Ginsberg, Cacoethes is Kenneth Rexroth, and Japhy - Japhy Rider - is Gary Snyder. Kerouac portrays him as charismatic and funny, but - to put it mildly - superficial and irresponsible. Snyder said years later that „beat” was a state of mind that affected him too, although not for long. but, to put it mildly, superficial and irresponsible. Snyder said years later that „beat” was a state of mind that affected him too, although not for long. but, to put it mildly, superficial and irresponsible. Snyder said years later that „beat” was a state of mind that affected him too, although not for long.

Already in 1956, the poet left for Japan, where he practiced Zen Buddhism and studied ecology for 12 years. He also traveled to India, during which he and Allen Ginsberg met the Dalai Lama. After returning to the United States, he settled in the Sierra Nevada mountains in a house he built with his own hands, where he lives to this day, writing and acting for all beings. In accordance with the promise he made, he opposes the system that destroys not only the Earth, but also our souls, making us the heroes of the poem Transactionwho mention „precious time for things” (trans. Adam Szostkiewicz). Gary Snyder's literary output includes several volumes of poetry, essays, and translations from Chinese and Japanese. He is the winner of many awards, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1975. He writes in simple sentences, not flashy, but to the point:

In Bloody Run,  we found a mushroom with a cap one foot in diameter
in a collapsing sawmill
 

I felt tiny.
It was so extremely
rare and huge,
and edible.

„Prince” 

(Meeting the Giant Mushroom , translated by Andrzej Szuba)

From the first meeting I am impressed by the sincere and joyful energy of this tireless wanderer. During the conversation, he is fully present, attentive, interested. He really answers questions, reflects, does not recite „ready-made”. „Don't worry so much,” he finally says with a smile. Does this mean that I should not worry, that I should be indifferent? Nothing of the sort: the point is that nothing useful comes from worrying. „Just do your job, do your job.” Sincere, selfless care does not outlast itself. And humor and laughter are elements of the „wildness etiquette”. We can't do it without them. 

Data publikacji: 02.03.2023