Gary Snyder (b1930)

I hope, in the next 29 years ("if we make it"), that I can manifest as much in the way of guts, brains, creativity, and positive energy--about life, death, the Natural World, love, children, and learning--as has my hero, Gary Snyder:

WHAT HAVE I LEARNED

What have I learned but
the proper use for several tools?

The moments
between hard pleasant tasks

To sit silent, drink wine,
and think my own kind
of dry crusty thoughts.

-the first Calochortus flowers
and in all the land,
it’s spring.
I point them out:
the yellow petals, the golden hairs
to Gen.

Seeing in silence:
never the same twice,
but when you get it right,

you pass it on.

We's tryin', Roshi. Lord knows, we's tryin'.