“Earth Verse

Wide enough to keep you looking

Open enough to keep you moving

Dry enough to keep you honest

Prickly enough to make you tough

Green enough to go on living

Old enough to give you dreams”

This is the shortest of 39 poems in Gary Snyder’s book titled Mountains and Rivers Without End, published by Counterpoint Press. The book is is an interesting caricature of the man and his West Coast environment. Also check out his radio interview on KQED in 2013.