jack kerouac introduced me to the importance of the world “ephemeral.” yesterday i looked out at the houses on my block being abused by the wind and thought how my neighborhood imagines itself as having long history and an infinite future but how all those houses will be eroded by the elements sooner than a stone in the river.
today, i came across another good piece in the seattle post-intelligencer about gary snyder. they’ve been rightfully giving him lots of love since danger on peaks came out, and apparently decided to publish another article on the occasion of him doing some readings in that neck of the woods.
as always, plenty of good stuff, but most striking was this verse of gary’s that they quoted. snyder says that humanity is like an
“explosion on the planet
we’re loose on earth
half a million years
our weird blast spreading -
and after,
rubble – millennia to weather,
soften, fragment,
sprout, and green again”
after having been stricken by the very real understanding this weekend of humankind’s destiny as an ephemeral presence on this earth, it was very cool as it help put some of the things i’ve read about snyder’s new book and what he’s been saying lately.
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