Product Description

These Pulitzer Prize-winning poems and essays by the author of No Nature range from the lucid, lyrical, and mystical to the political. All, however, share a common vision: a rediscovery of North America and the ways by which we might become true natives of the land for the first time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #351479 in Books
• Published on: 1974-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 114 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780811205467
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Turtle Island won Gary Snyder the Pulitzer back in 1975, and remains, to this observer, his most completely realized work. The title comes from a Native American term for the continent of North America, and Snyder wants to reclaim the organic and holistic environmental harmony that once held sway here. Still, this is poetry, not diatribe. Snyder's key virtue isn't his political or philosophical vision, but his poetic articulation of that vision. Excellent.

Review
One Should Not Talk To A Skilled Hunter About What Is
Affluence
Anasazi
As For Poets
Avocado
The Bath
Bedrock
Black Mesa Mine #1
By Frazier Creek Falls
The Call Of The Wild
Charms
Control Burn
Coyote Valley Spring
The Dazzle
The Dead By The Side Of The Road
Dusty Braces
The Egg
Ethnobotany
For Nothing
For The Children
Front Lines
Gen
The Great Mother
Hemp
The Hudsonian Curlew
I Went Into The Maverick Bar
It Pleases
The Jemez Pueblo Ring
Lmfbr
Magpie's Song
Manzanita
Mother Earth: Her Whales
Night Herons
No Matter, Never Mind
O Waters
On San Gabriel Ridges
Pine Tree Tops
Prayer For The Great Family; After A Mohawk Prayer
Rain In The Alleghany
The Real Work
Source
Spel Against Demons
Steak
Straight-creek -- Great Burn (for Tom And Martha Burch)
Tomorrow's Song
Toward Climax
Two Fawns That Didn't See The Light This Spring
Two Immortals
Up Branches Of Duck River
The Uses Of Light
Walking Home From The Duchess Of Malfi
The Way West, Underground
What Happened Here Before
What Steps
Why Log Truck Drivers Rise Earlier Than Students Of Zen
The Wild Mushroom
Without
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Customer Reviews

Poetry and a museum piece of the 70's
Turtle Island is probably Gary Snyder's best known book - an award winning book. The "museum piece" teaser in the review summary refers to the short essay at the end of the book arguing cogently for a reduction in population, a more communal life style, etc. - a piece well written in its time but one that has portions which need rewriting in light of the increased opportunities for recycling etc. The poetry, however, does stand the test of time. Snyder's poetry reflects the directness of Zen poetry - his nature is real nature not nature conjured up for imagery or "concreteness". His knowledge of mythological symbols - including Turtle Island - is deep; his is not a superficial borrowing. Gary Snyder would be on my short list of "most know" poets and Turtle Island is a good place start becoming familiar with his work.

Snyder's best work
Even three decades after its publication which won for Gary Snyder the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, this text of poems and essays remains a classic of 20th-century American poetry and environmental literature. I look forward to teaching it again in a college classroom later this winter and introducing a new generation of students to the power of Snyder's poetry and ideas.

Warm steamy wood, a spicy stew, clear running water, ...
...And a message for you.

I've never reviewed a book of poetry before. Short of "Roses are red...", or "There once was a man from Nantucket...", I'm not sure I could recognize good poetry from bad. And other than a bit of exposure to Emerson, Poe, and Jeffers, I haven't been everywhere that poetry can take you. But this stuff seemed pretty good. It was full of playful imagery, flowed well, and it wasn't so experimental that I got completely lost.

In summary, consider it a pinnacle of 70's hip-thought. If you read "Sleeping where I fall", you'll realize that not a few people wanted to be where Snyder's head was at. I'm not sure how many made it though - too much baggage. I'm not all with Snyder's way of thinking either. But I appreciate his choice of medium, and his attempt to get past expressing the unexpressable.