Snyder presents new work at Rackham

With lights dimmed and a silent crowd waiting on his words, poet Gary Snyder, an environmentalist, activist and member of the Beat Generation, took stage in front of a packed house at Rackham Amphitheatre last night.

Snyder is "a contemporary hunter-gatherer who knows how to get off the trail," former English department Chair John Knott said in his introduction of Snyder, who also serves part of his year as a professor at the University of California at Davis.

His writing "embodies a strong sense of discipline and a wild sense of play," Knott added.

Snyder read several selections from his newest publication "Gary Snyder Reader: Poetry, Prose and Translation."

JESSICA JOHNSON/Daily Poet Gary Snyder reads from his new book, "Gary Snyder Reader: Poetry, Prose and Translation" at Rackham Ampitheatre last night.

The book is a collection of Snyder's published works, in addition to previously unpublished selections from his travel journals, personal letters and new poems.

Selections from Snyder's travel journal include his visits to Australia, Africa and his time as a forest ranger.

In his piece titled, "The North Botswana Elephant Range," Snyder describes his travels with his son through the wilderness.

"In Botswana there are no maps, you borrow an old truck ... You camp all over and animals run all over you," Snyder read.

After reading Snyder's 1975 Pulitzer Prize winning book "Turtle Island," Ben Nicholson, a second-year SNRE and naval architecture graduate student said he was inspired to attend the reading.

"I consider myself a very big environmentalist," Nicholson said.

Snyder ended his reading with a new Haiku from his collection; "This present moment that lives on to become long ago," he read.

After repeating the poem, Snyder bowed to the audience before leaving the stage.

"It was a wonderful ending," LSA senior Adam Kupersztach said. "It was amazing to actually see him get to read his own stuff."

The cover of Snyder's collection features a photograph of Snyder in the Sierra Mountains.

"The cover ... is me laughing my fool head off at the top of the mountains," Snyder said. In Jack Kerouac's fictional novel "Dharma Bums," Snyder is depicted as the character Japhy Ryder. "For those of you who have read Dharma Bums, most of it is fiction except for the mountain climb."

First-year LSA student Korana Stakich said she enjoyed Snyder's pieces on his travel.

"It was very convincing and he was very persuasive," Stakich said.

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