Gary Snyder

Gary Snyder: Song of the Taste

Eating the living germs of grasses
Eating the ova of large birds

    the fleshy sweetness packed
    around the sperm of swaying trees

The muscles of the flanks and thighs of
               soft-voiced cows
     the bounce in the lamb’s leap
     the swish in the ox’s tail

Eating roots grown swoll
              inside the soil

Drawing on life of living
      clustered points of light spun
                 out of space
hidden in the grape.

Eating each other’s seed
                   eating
     ah, each other.

Kissing the lover in the mouth of bread:
                   lip to lip.

Gary Snyder: Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout

Down valley a smoke haze
Three days heat, after five days rain
Pitch glows on the fir-cones
Across rocks and meadows
Swarms of new flies.

I cannot remember things I once read
A few friends, but they are in cities.
Drinking cold snow-water from a tin cup
Looking down for miles
Through high still air.