by Gary Snyder
Lay down these words
Before your mind like rocks,
placed solid, by hands
In choice of place, set
Before the body of the mind
in space and time:
Solidity of bark, leaf, or wall
riprap of things:
Cobble of milky way,
straying of planets,
These poems, people,
lost ponies with
Dragging saddles---
and rocky sure-foot trails.
Game of Go.
ants and pebbles
In the thin loam, each rock a word
a creek-washed stone
Granite: ingrained
with torment of fire and weight
Crystal and sediment linked hot
all change, in thoughts,
As well as things.
Before your mind like rocks,
placed solid, by hands
In choice of place, set
Before the body of the mind
in space and time:
Solidity of bark, leaf, or wall
riprap of things:
Cobble of milky way,
straying of planets,
These poems, people,
lost ponies with
Dragging saddles---
and rocky sure-foot trails.
Game of Go.
ants and pebbles
In the thin loam, each rock a word
a creek-washed stone
Granite: ingrained
with torment of fire and weight
Crystal and sediment linked hot
all change, in thoughts,
As well as things.
One of my favourites of Snyder's... and one I've featured on my own blog a couple of times...
ReplyDeleteIt seems appropriate, Ruth, that your image is in monochrome, mirroring the granite solidity, perhaps, of bark, leaf or wall?
ReplyDelete