By Mia Proli Gable
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Zen Buddhist, Beat poet, environmentalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Gary Snyder will lecture on "Rediscovering Turtle Island" in the lobby of the Center for Creative Photography tonight at 7:30 p.m..
Turtle Island is the name that many Native cultures use in reference to the Americas and it is also the title of Snyder's prize-winning collection of poems.
Snyder's lecture will focus on issues raised in Turtle Island, such as Native Americans' relationship to the land and the environment.
"I try to hold both history and wilderness in mind, that my poems may approach the true measure of things and stand against the unbalance and ignorance of our times," writes Snyder.
Born in San Francisco and raised in Oregon and Washington, Snyder has always been one to live life to its fullest, and then write about it. He has been a seaman, a logger in the Pacific Northwest and studied under a Zen master while living in Japan.
While studying Asian languages at Berkeley in the 1950s, Snyder became acquainted with Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and others that would become known as the Beat writers. In fact, Snyder is the protagonist in Kerouac's novel The Dharma Bums.
Gary Snyder's lecture will be followed by a question-and-answer session, as well as a reception and book signing. Photographic works of Leah King Smith and Ruth Thorne Thomsen will be on display in the Center's Main Gallery.
Gary Snyder's lecture will take place at the Center for Creative Photography, located on Olive Street within the UA Fine Arts Complex at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. Call 621-7968 for more information.
The Snow
on Saddle Mountain
By Gary Snyder
The only thing that can be relied on
is the snow on Kurakake Mountain.
fields and woods
thawing, freezing, and thawing,
totally untrustworthy.
it's true, a great fuzzy windstorm
like yeast up there today, still
the only faint source of hope
is the snow on Kurakake mountain.