Mountains and Rivers Without End: Poem

By Gary Snyder

Book Overview

Discover 35+ treasured poems by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder in this landmark poetry collection celebrating Zen Buddhism, travel, and our connection to nature.

"A magnificent achievement . . . like a modern Leaves of Grass, combines fascination with the varied particulars of the way people live with awe at the majesty of nature" --Publishers Weekly

In simple, striking verse, legendary poet Gary Snyder weaves an epic discourse on the topics of geology, prehistory, and mythology. First published in 1996, this landmark poetry collection encompasses Asian artistic traditions, as well as Native American storytelling and Zen Buddhist philosophy, and celebrates the disparate elements of the Earth--sky, rock, water--while exploring the human connection to nature with stunning wisdom.

Winner of the Bollingen Poetry Prize, the Robert Kirsch Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Orion Society's John Hay Award, among others, Gary Snyder finds his quiet brilliance celebrated in this new edition of one of his most treasured works.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1582434077
• ISBN13: 9781582434070
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

A man's world-vision made true through communion with Nature

In this work of poetry, Snyder has presented a perception of the world that has taken four decades of experience to put into words. But, this is more than a simple philosophical oratory, because Snyder came to write this due to the influence of Nature. This is a powerful description of Man's relationship with the planet.

An epic poem from a master.

Gary Snyder's epic poem "Mountains and Rivers Without End" is an epic work from an American Zen Buddhist pioneer. From Kerouac to the millenium, it is all there. His history is our history. Read it and get wiser.

Words of a Living Master

It's not often one gets the chance to hold in hand the words of a living master.At a Library of Congress reading on October 24, 1996, Gary Snyder sounded out the Buddha-nature of his work by reading from "Mountains and Rivers Without End." I was familiar with him as one of the Dharma bums of the fifties, and later -- in the late seventies and early eighties -- as a "deep ecologist." I had read some of his poems and essays, and thought I had "got it." But I hadn't, really. Not until I heard him read. That night I bought "Mountains and Rivers Without End" mainly because of the perennial philosophy Snyder paints in "The Blue Sky." In truth, I also felt a sense of longing: longing for the names of old friends he calls upon, names that I (as a Buddhist) miss hearing in my busy monkey-life (Shakyamuni Buddha, Kama, Ramana Maharshi); longing for the sounds of Pali words in Sanskrit chants; longing for the promise of the Blue Land, the Pure Land, the Land of Healing. I realized later that I bought "Mountains and Rivers Without End" to try and take home some of the intense emotional involvement that the reading invoked. But this work, years in the making, can be appreciated on levels from the purely cerebral to the blatantly emotional. So even though the immediacy of hearing the words has faded, I continue to peel the verses like onions, discovering layers upon layers of truthful artistry that impart new immediacies with every reading. Dan Everman