O Y S T E R   B O Y   R E V I E W   [ 7 ]
Gary Snyder

O L D   B O N E S


Out there walking round, looking out for food,
a rootstock, a birdcall, a seed that you can crack
plucking, digging, snaring, snagging,
        barely getting by,

no food out there on dusty slopes of scree—
carry some—look for some,
go for a hungry dream.
Deer bone, Dall sheep,
        bones hunger home.

Out there somewhere
a shrine for the old ones,
the dust of the old bones,
        old songs and tales.

What we ate—who ate what—
        how we all prevailed.

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Three Gary Snyder Links:

The Circumambulation of Mt. Tamalpais by Gary Snyderat Spark, University of California, Davis.

Gary Snyder at Literary Kicks.

Gary Snyder talks with Alan Watts, Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg (audio clip at Sonarchy).

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"Old Bones" is a poem from Gary Snyder's Mountains and Rivers Without End, published by Counterpoint Press, 1996. Used by permission of the publisher.

Oyster Boy Review 7