Gary Snyder Wins 2008 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize
Wow, I like the heavy rain and the thunderstorms. Makes me wonder if it is true that one should unplug the computer when lightning is near. Any thoughts?
Over at Treehugger, I wrote about Gary Snyder, who won the 2008 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Gary, one of the Beat Poets, lived in Kyoto for a decade from 1956 (!) and is still going strong. Congratulations.
I like his humour and political sarcasm, as in Coyote Man, Mr. President & the Gunfighters, a story inspired by an ancient Chinese text, in Kyoto Journal:
Mr. President was fascinated by gunfighters. Expert gunfighters were invited to his White House, three thousand of them, like guests in the house. Day and night they practiced fast-draw and shootouts in his presence until the dead and wounded men numbered more than a hundred a year.
The Senator from the Great Basin was troubled by this, and summoning his aides, said, "I’ll give a basket of turquoise and a truckload of compost to any man who can reason with Mr. President and make him give up these gunfights!" "Coyote Man is the one who can do it!" said his aides...
Comments
He'd been diagnosed with cancer a few years ago. Great to see he's still keeping his place in space.
Speaking of lightning. Last month, i spent an afternoon watching lightning dance around my little valley. While my computer was unscathed, my modem wasn't. A strike must've hit a telephone line nearby, hurtling through my phone line and frying the poor thing. Pretty common apparently.
Anyway, really enjoying Kurashi. Happy that you're doing the 'Real Work.'
Ted
I saw Snyder read one time and was impressed with an impromptu line that came when the audience was asked to look at a paper with some poems on it that they had been handed. As the papers began to shuffle, Snyder noted, "ah, the sound of papers being shuffled; like dry leaves blowing in an empty parking lot."
Wow.
Anyway, hadn't heard about this award, so thanks for the post.
I try, every day.