2008 Woodie Awards
Pulitzer poet visits
James Schulte
Issue date: 4/24/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment
4/24/06
Instructor and De Anza College literary magazine Red Wheelbarrow adviser Ken Weisner was able to give his classes the opportunity to meet and interview Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder.
The interview will be transcribed and printed in this year's edition of Red Wheelbarrow, that will be produced by Weisner as a class for EWRT- 65 this quarter.
Snyder was at the Villa Montalvo Arts Center to give a poetry reading at the Montalvo Carriage House Theatre. The reading came from his 2004 book of poetry "Danger on Peaks."
"The strategies of poems are that they enter the imagination," said Snyder.
A self-described pre-modern poet, Snyder focuses on alternatives to city living, shows a reverence for nature and a deep interest in Eastern philosophy, because according to Snyder, modern people don't think about the future.
"My poems are about work, love and nature," said Snyder. "I try to convey a sense of affection and gratitude to the world."
Walt Whitman and Emily Dickenson influenced his early years, as did a love of nature. Snyder sets his nature poems in their true bio-region, a technique which comes from his being a logger and ranger in the Pacific Northwest. At age 16, he started climbing mountains and wanted to describe what he saw with his writings.
"Art is what you give to other people," said Snyder.
Instructor and De Anza College literary magazine Red Wheelbarrow adviser Ken Weisner was able to give his classes the opportunity to meet and interview Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder.
The interview will be transcribed and printed in this year's edition of Red Wheelbarrow, that will be produced by Weisner as a class for EWRT- 65 this quarter.
Snyder was at the Villa Montalvo Arts Center to give a poetry reading at the Montalvo Carriage House Theatre. The reading came from his 2004 book of poetry "Danger on Peaks."
"The strategies of poems are that they enter the imagination," said Snyder.
A self-described pre-modern poet, Snyder focuses on alternatives to city living, shows a reverence for nature and a deep interest in Eastern philosophy, because according to Snyder, modern people don't think about the future.
"My poems are about work, love and nature," said Snyder. "I try to convey a sense of affection and gratitude to the world."
Walt Whitman and Emily Dickenson influenced his early years, as did a love of nature. Snyder sets his nature poems in their true bio-region, a technique which comes from his being a logger and ranger in the Pacific Northwest. At age 16, he started climbing mountains and wanted to describe what he saw with his writings.
"Art is what you give to other people," said Snyder.
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