Danger on peaks
Subtitle: poems
By: Gary Snyder.
Publisher: Shoemaker & Hoard; Distributed by Publishers Group West
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Washington, DC; [Berkeley, Calif.?]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 112
Description: "When Gary Snyder applied for the position of fire lookout for the U.S. Forest Service in Washington state in 1952 he wrote in his letter, "So I would like your highest, most remote, and most difficult-of-access lookout." He got the job and was sent to Crater Mountain Lookout, the most remote outpost in Washington. But this wasn't his first encounter with dangerous peaks." "This book, Snyder's first collection of new poems in twenty years, begins with poems about an earlier climb - Snyder's first ascent of Mount St. Helens in 1945. He learned of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the morning of his descent, from newspapers delivered to forestry offices on the slopes of the mountain. Climbing, mountain and backwoods encounters begun in those early years of his life set the tone and provided much of the substance for what has followed in the remarkable life of one of America's most revered poets." "Danger on Peaks contains work in a surprising variety of styles, creating an arc-shaped trail from those earliest climbs to what the poet calls poems "of intimate immediate life, gossip and insight" (some of the poet's most personal work ever). Included are poems that work with the magical lyrics of Old Man Coyote and poems in an American / Japanese hybrid, a form of haibun, "haiku plus prose," which will remind readers as much of William Carlos Williams as Basho. The book ends with poems for the Buddhas of Bamiyan Valley, which were blown up by the Taliban, and the World Trade Towers."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: The mountain and the lake; title: The climb; title: Atomic dawn; title: Some fate; title: Letting go; title: Blast zone; title: To Ghost Lake; title: Pearly everlasting; title: Enjoy the day; title: Brief years; title: Glacier ghosts; title: What to tell, still; title: Strong spirit; title: Sharing an oyster with the captain; title: Summer of '97; title: Really the real; title: Ankle-deep in ashes; title: Winter almond; title: Mariano Vallejo's library; title: Waiting for a ride; title: Steady, they say; title: Doctor Coyote when he had a problem; title: Claws/cause; title: How many?; title: Loads on the road; title: Carwash time; title: To all the girls whose ears I pierced back then; title: She knew all about art; title: Coffee, market, blossoms; title: In the Santa Clarita valley; title: Almost okay now; title: Sus; title: Day's driving done; title: Snow flies, burn brush, shut down; title: Icy mountains constantly walking; title: For philip zenshin whalen; title: For carole; title: Steady, they say; title: Gray squirrels; title: Day in late summer; title: Spilling the wind; title: California laurel; title: Baking bread; title: Empty bus; title: No shadow; title: Shandel; title: Night herons; title: The Acropolis back when; title: The emu; title: The Hie Shrine and the "One-Tree" district; title: Cormorants; title: To go; title: Thousand cranes; title: For Anthea Corinne Snyder Lowry; title: The great bell of the Gion; title: After bamiyan; title: Loose on earth; title: Falling from a height, holding hands; title: Senso-ji; title: Envoy.