Amiee Tomasello

English 232

T.L. Pagaard

May 8, 2002

Zen and Gary Snyder’s “Riprap” and “Wave”

Gary Snyder was not one of the original members of the Beat movement, but his

work was as innovative as theirs. He met up with fellow Beats after returning from

Kyoto, Japan where he studied Zen Buddhism. He also studied Asian languages and did

several translations. His style is separate from the Beats in his profound regard for

nature, and his work has been deeply influenced by his practice of Zen Buddhism as well

as his background with the Chinese and Japanese. In the poems “Riprap” and “Wave” the

Zen influence is prevalent as Snyder creates profound images of the connected nature

between all things as well as the wave-like energy in both static and flowing objects.

The literal meaning of “Riprap” is “a cobble of stone laid on steep slick rock to

make a trail for horses in the mountains” (Snyder 2349); it brings into focus the

influence of physical work on Gary Snyder. He stated, “I’ve recently come to realize that

the rhythms of my poems follow the rhythm of the physical work that I’m doing and the

life I’m leading at any given time—which makes music in my head which creates the line”

(Bloom Contemporary Poets 357). Snyder’s focus on the careful placement of rocks on the

path also is reminiscent of the “Zen injunction, “make your work your meditation” (Nor-

ton Critical Essays on Snyder1 71).

With regard to “Riprap,” Snyder stated that when he first witnessed the rip-rapping

in the Sierras, he noticed that the selection of rocks was “perfect,” and from this he “tried

writing poems of touch, simple, short words, with the complexity far beneath the surface

texture” (Bloom 358). This complexity is notable in his words, “Lay down these words

Before your mind like rocks,

Placed solid, by hands

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In choice of place, set

Before the body of the mind

In space and time. (Snyder 2350)

Snyder uses the image of the trail to draw a picture with careful placement of words,

explaining the meticulous nature in which he writes. We are able to see in this poem a

clear influence from “the five-and-seven character line Chinese poems” he was reading,

which, Snyder feels “work like sharp blows on the mind” (Bloom 358).

Snyder is able to present a poem based upon a very complex idea. While this poem

is a great representation of the meditative quality that physical labor may have, as well

as the delicacy one must possess to write such poetry, he also draws important implica-

tions about our existence.

In the lines, “These poems, people, lost ponies with Dragging saddles—and rocky

sure-foot trails. The worlds like and endless four dimensional Game of Go” (Snyder 2350),

the reference to Go is an important one. Go is a Japanese game in which players move

black and white stones on intersecting lines across a board. Placing his Western images

from the Sierras into the “four dimensional Game of Go,” reminds us once again of Sny-

der’s Zen influence. The image of all things connected by imaginary connecting lines cre-

ates a profound respect for nature and our responsibility in the universe.

Snyder claims that while working on the trail-crew in the Sierras, he was able to

meditate a great deal, and that “Riprap” and Cold Mountain Poems, “celebrates the work

of hands, placing of rock, and my first glimpse of the image of the whole universe as

interconnected, interpenetrating, mutually reflecting, and mutually embracing” (Snyder

RCMP 67).

In the poem “Wave” the concentration is on the wave-like energy that flows

through things that are both static and fluid. This is a concept that is enforced not only in

a form of Buddhism known as Mahayana Buddhism but also in Western physics. In fact,

“one of the objects of Buddhist meditation is to achieve awareness of impermanence in all

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aspects of reality, external and internal” (Almon 83). It is said that the poems from the

book, Regarding Wave, from which the poem “Wave,” is extracted, “frequently offer the

world placed under the microscope”(Almon 81). This again returns us to Snyder’s Bud-

dhist influence, as according to Zen, “The mind serves properly as a window glass rather

than as a reflector…. The mind should give an immediate view instead of an interpreta-

tion of the world” (Watts). Snyder’s poems do indeed provide a close-up view of things as

in the opening of wave,

Grooving clam shell,

streakt through marble,

sweeping down ponderosa pine bark-scale

rip-cut tree grain—sand dunes, lava—flow.

(Snyder 2351)

Snyder’s mention of this waving energy of random objects gives dignity to nature. He also

mentions a female sexual energy from a dignified view. In the second stanza, the allitera-

tion serves as a catalyst for flow in the mention of woman, “Wave wife. woman—wyf-

man—-“veiled; vibrating; vague” (Snyder 2351).

Snyder’s interest in sexual energy and his respect for the female role as mother

and wife is evident in many of his poems. He writes honestly about the female form as in

“The Bath,” a poem about Snyder and his wife bathing their sons, naked in a washtub. His

exploration of sexual energy is something he considers important; he asserts, “Any person

who attempts to discover what the real values of sex are, and what marriage really

means, will be called immoral or obscene” (Ash Beat Spirit1 90).

Snyder closes with “Catch me and fling me wide to the dancing grain of things—of

my mind” (Snyder 2351). His reference to the “dancing grain” re-enforces the wave

metaphor. The word “dancing” returns us to the idea of a “dynamic world” (Almon 82).

Gary Snyder’s work promotes an awareness of our surroundings on a natural level

more than the other Beats. While the others, as Harold Bloom says, “coarsen themselves,”

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Snyder does “the very opposite.” Bloom also asserts that Snyder promotes a “gentleness

and care for civilization” (Bloom 365).

Gary Snyder said once that poetry is “ a riprap over the slick rock of metaphysics”

(Almon 80). His work presents a fresh perspective on the universe to the Western world.

One is able to sense the connected nature that he is trying to capture in “Riprap,” and

realize the Buddhist idea that” separate things exist only in relation to one another”

(Watts). His love for nature that developed in him when he was a young boy is also estab-

lished as he writes beautifully about the creation of a trail in the mountains. Unlike the

other Beats, Snyder promotes universal unity. This is not to be confused with conformity.

He instead allows a reader to understand the relationship of humans to one another as

well as to their surrounding universe. He demonstrates this understanding in “Wave,” pay-

ing tribute to the energy flowing through objects normally perceived as static, as well as

developing the connection between sexual energy and the surrounding world. This view

most developed from his Buddhist teachings, as “Dhyana denotes specifically the state of

consciousness of a Buddha, —one whose mind is free from the assumption that the dis-

tinct individuality of oneself and other things is real” (Watts).

Snyder challenges readers to understand the interconnected nature in which we

exist. In a time when the Beats where challenging mainstream civilization, Snyder

revealed profound unity.

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Works Cited

Snyder, Gary. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Lauter, Paul. Boston, MA.

Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.2348-2351.

Snyder, Gary. “Riprap” and Cold Mountain Poems. North Point Press. Farrar, Straus and

Giroux. New York, NY. 1990.

Ash, Mel. Beat Spirit. Jeremy P. Tarcher. Putnam New York, NY. 1997. 173-196.

Watts, Alan Wilson, S.T.M., D.D., “Zen” Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. 2000.

http://encarta.msn.com.

Murphy, Patrick D. Critical Essays on Gary Snyder. General Editor James Nagel. North-

western Univerisity. 1991.

Almon, Bert. “Buddhism and Energy in the Recent Poetry of Gary Snyder.” Critical Essays

on Gary Snyder. General Editor James Nagel. Northwestern Univerisity. 1991, 80-

83.

Norton, Jody. Critical Essays on Gary Snyder. General Editor James Nagel. Northwestern

University. 1991,171.

Questions

(1) How does sexual energy work in Gary Snyder’s, “Wave?”

(2) Why is Snyder still grouped with the Beats, even though his message is so very

different?

(3) How is his message still similar?

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