Left Out in the Rain: Poems

By Gary Snyder

Book Overview

"The reading is something like archeology, sifting the layers that have built up over the years to find the source of a familiar voice . . . Left Out in the Rain shows us the footsteps in the wet meadow grass." --Los Angeles Times

"A fascinating case study and verse autobiography of a man who long ago staked his claim as one of America's finest poets." --Boston Herald

When Gary Snyder was in his twenties working as a forester and logger, one of the old loggers told him, "If you're gonna work these woods, don't want nothing that can't be left out in the rain."

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, Snyder's reflections are as much about the human experience as they are about the environment that encompasses it.

Sensual, sardonic, meditative, epigrammatic, formalist--whatever the subject, tone, or structure, these poems all bear the indelible stamp of a master. A villanelle for Finnish folklore, riffs on the neo-formalist poems trendy in the 1950s, a sestina on the philosophical dilemmas of anthropology and linguistics, a transformation of the third century BC Daoist essay "Discourse on Swords" into a satire on contemporary warlike administrations and governments--the 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, "This complicated gathering of many poems, tight and loose together is like an understory ecosystem of the Old Growth. It needs rain."

On the wooded coast,

eating oysters

Looking off toward

China and Japan

"If you're gonna

work these woods

Don't want nothing

That can't be

left out in the rain--"

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1593760906
• ISBN13: 9781593760908
• Release Date: December 2005
• Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

wonderful bundle of poems

i first read some of the poems in a bookstore waiting for my grandfather one day. slowly i flipped through the pages, reading several poems to get a feel for the book, which is quite different from Gary Snyder's other works, but in a good way (as he describes in his forward). his other works, each of them, seem to have more of a common theme or idea to them, where as in this book it is a compilation of poems from 1947-1985. these poems range from the Pacific Northwest Coast, to New York City, to Kyoto, to love. All of his poems hold true to Mr. Snyder's broad style, so if you enjoy his poems i am sure you will enjoy this compilation.

Highly recommended for poetry enthusiasts

Left Out in the Rain is a free-verse poetry collection by Gary Snyder, winner of the Pulitzer Prize among other awards. In his twenties, he labored as a forester and logger; one of his experienced co-workers told him, "If you're gonna work these woods, don't want nothing that can't be left out in the rain." That phrase became the title and binding theme of Left Out In The Rain, which examines human experiences in relation to the environment that encompasses them. The diversity of the often brief verses makes each one linger in the mind as bright flicker of momentary insight, in this compilation highly recommended for poetry enthusiasts. The Taste: I don't know where it went / Or recall how it worked / What one did / What the steps were / Was it hands? / Or the words and the tune? / All that's left / Is a flavor / That stays

musings of a dharma bum

Hoo! this singular syllable is all that can be used to attempt to describe this. snyder's short eternal truths, his exact observations and his simplistic morals are all explored beyond what anyone else has done or will do. snyder's life is chronicled by himself in this series of poems that everyone who has heard of poetry must read.