Read this for May 2024 Calfifornia Book Club.

This is Snyder's first published collection (1959), and the first thing I have read from him. IKt is a mix of his own poetry (Riprap), Cold Mountain Poems are translated and by the Chinese poet Han-shan, who lived AD 600s or 700s.

My favorites here are the ones about the Sierra Nevada and outdoor work: Hay for the Horses, Thin Ice, the Piute Creek poems. While reading I wondered where Piute Creek is, as they reminded me of Fresno County around Shaver Lake (particularly the granite). The Afterword explains that he worked in Yosemite along Piute Creek--so not far at all from Shaver. Same granite formation, most likely.

I am curious about Snyder's later work--there is A LOT, and he also won a Pulitzer. ( )

I have the edition that includes the DVD of Snyder reading then and now. I especially appreciated the new note appended to For a Far-Out Friend. ( )

This is two chapbooks in one. Riprap, originally published by Origin Press in 1959, are Snyder's own poems. The Cold Mountain section are Snyder's translations of some of the poems of the Tang Chinese poet Han-shan. I liked the Cold Mountain section better than the first. I found Han-shan's poetry more immediate and simpler. Which is not to say there is anything wrong with Snyder's own poetry. I went on from this book to read other Snyder. ( )

it was a pleasure to reread these poems in 2005, Synder's work is a perennial inspiration... ( )