Thursday, August 09, 2012

Thursday Poem - Riprap

Lay down these words
Before your mind like rocks.
             placed solid, by hands   
In choice of place, set
Before the body of the mind
             in space and time:
Solidity of bark, leaf, or wall
             riprap of things:
Cobble of milky way,
             straying planets,
These poems, people,
             lost ponies with
Dragging saddles—
             and rocky sure-foot trails.   
The worlds like an endless   
             four-dimensional
Game of Go.
             ants and pebbles
In the thin loam, each rock a word   
             a creek-washed stone
Granite: ingrained
             with torment of fire and weight   
Crystal and sediment linked hot
             all change, in thoughts,   
As well as things.
Gary Snyder
(from Riprap and Cold Mountain)

4 comments:

Lynn said...

Beautifully shoring up our senses, Cate.

Guy said...

Hi Cate

A lovely poem by Snyder.

Thanks Guy

the wild magnolia said...

Nature sleek and shining.

Kameshwari said...

I've been so busy while on vacation, that I forgot how much I enjoy having a volume of Gary Snyder as my companion. Riprap reminds me to remember the infinite and to slow down to let the planets whirl about.