A few years ago, I met Gary Snyder at an event at
Baylor. I had read some of his poetry,
and I was in awe of all those I read. A
friend passed along a copy of his volume of essays, Back on the Fire. He has
authored numerous collections of poetry and prose. He won the Pulitzer prize in 1975 and was a
finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992 and 2005. He has also won the prestigious Bollingen
Poetry Prize among other prizes. He has
lived in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada since 1970. Many of the essays in this collection from
2007 are quite relevant today.
The first deals with “Migration/Immigration.” He writes, “There are those who argue that
since the majority of the North American population is descended from
immigrants it would be somehow wrong to change past policies and try to slow
immigration down or even bring it to a halt.
This backward-looking position fails to see that, although people do
move to new places, they can be expected in time to become members of that
place and to think in terms of the welfare of the place itself. People who have moved do no remain
immigrants, with ‘Old Country’ nostalgia, forever—when our loyalties are to the
land we live on, the debate changes” (17).
If only we could have a real, honest, humanitarian debate.
Preserving the environment is
important to Snyder. He writes, “We may
speak of ‘public land’ or ‘private land,’ but the truth is we are in the
presence of an ancient mystery—life itself—and the great life-communities
within which all beings thrive and die.
The pines were contemporary with the dinosaurs; the sequoias were a
dominant forest that swept across the north Pacific rim and into much of Asia,
long ago. Oakes are in several genus
found on every continent except Antarctica.
Indeed, ‘distinguished strangers from another world.’ They are all amazing. We live in a lovely and mysterious realm”
(37).
Of course, Snyder must weigh in
on poetry. He writes, “People are always
asking ‘what’s the use of poetry?’ The
mystery of language, the poetic imagination, and the mind of compassion are
roughly one and the same, and through poetry perhaps they can keep guiding the
world toward occasional moments of peace, gratitude, and delight. One hesitates to ask for more” (60). What a lovely way to explain poetry!

Gary Snyder is an interesting, gentle, soft-spoken lover of
nature and all its wonders. He advocates
for the environment and mourns the loss of species, habitats, flowers, and
trees. His slim volume of essays, Back on Fire, is an interesting look at
the world we inhabit. He is not
pedantic, but he rather gently gathers words and phrases to support the
importance of this tiny blue dot. 5
Stars.
--Chiron, 2/20/18
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