Overview
āA fascinating case study and verse autobiography of a man who long ago staked his claim as one of Americaās finest poets.ā āBoston Herald
When Gary Snyder was in his twenties working as a forester and logger, one of the old loggers told him, āIf youāre gonna work these woods, donāt want nothing that canāt be left out in the rain.ā
Borrowing the phrase, Left Out in the Rain charts the journeys of the poet from 1947 to 1985. From the mountains and shores of the Pacific Northwest to the city streets of San Francisco, New York, and Kyoto, Snyderās reflections are as much about the human experience as they are about the environment that encompasses it.
Sensual, sardonic, meditative, epigrammatic, formalistāwhatever the subject, tone, or structure, these poems all bear the indelible stamp of a master. A villanelle for Finnish folklore, riffs on the neoāformalist poems trendy in the 1950s, a sestina on the philosophical dilemmas of anthropology and linguistics, a transformation of the third century BC Daoist essay āDiscourse on Swordsā into a satire on contemporary warlike administrations and governmentsāthe experiments in this collection place Snyder among the most diverse of contemporary poets.
Left Out in the Rain means to include items carefully chosen to outlast the elements and remain useful for years. In his new preface to this edition, Snyder notes, āThis complicated gathering of many poems, tight and loose together is like an understory ecosystem of the Old Growth. It needs rain.ā
On the wooded coast,
eating oysters
Looking off toward
China and Japan
āIf youāre gonna
work these woods
Donāt want nothing
That canāt be
left out in the raināā
This book title, Left Out in the Rain (Poems), ISBN: 9781593760908, by Gary Snyder, published by Catapult (December 9, 2005) is available in paperback. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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