The Real Work

An admirable collection of bits and pieces. Unlike most such volumes of literary leftovers, this one sticks to the ribs, because Snyder has a lot more to offer than footnotes to his poems or personal gossip. His Zen Buddhist-ecological perspective takes in the big picture. He sees the environmental crisis, for instance, as a "problem of love; not the humanistic love of the West - but a love that extends to animals, rocks, dirt, all of it." Nature, as he says, is his primary constituency. Alternately, he views himself as a kind of shaman, "articulating the semi-known to the tribe." But this is no cult of the poetic personality. As a good Buddhist, Synder wants to block out the "static" caused by ego, and let Original Mind speak through him. Quoting the Japanese poet Nanao Sakaki, he insists there is "no need to survive," i.e., he feels gratitude for being allowed to be a spokesman for something infinitely bigger than himself. He works "so that the dance can go on a little better for a little longer." Perhaps the best feature of Snyder's arguments is the way they are rooted in his own experience. He doesn't dabble in Zen - he spent years in a Japanese Buddhist monastery. He talks about tule elk or the geology of the Sierras with the authority of someone who has lived in the back country and knows it well. Even the most (potentially) fragile and artificial element in Snyder's poetic world - his emulation of archaic culture - is backed up by careful, critical study. None of this would, in itself, suffice to create a single poem, but, as Snyder expounds it, in his relaxed, lucid, commonsensical fashion, it makes for excellent philosophy - or religion. (Kirkus Reviews)