Danger on Peaks (8 page)
Authors: Gary Snyder
L
OOSE ON
E
ARTH
A tiny spark, or
the slow-moving glow on the fuse
creeping toward where
ergs held close
in petrol, saltpeter, mine gas,
buzzing minerals in the ground,
are waiting.
Held tight in a few hard words
in a dark mood,
in an old shame.
Humanity,
said Jeffers, is like a quick
explosion on the planet
we're loose on earth
half a million years
our weird blast spreading â
and after,
rubble â millennia to weather,
soften, fragment,
sprout, and green again
F
ALLING FROM A
H
EIGHT
, H
OLDING
H
ANDS
What was
that
?
storms of flying glass
& billowing flames
a clear day to the far sky â
better than burning,
hold hands.
We will be
two      peregrines      diving
all the way down
T
HE
K
ANNON OF
A
SAKUSA
, S
ENSÅ-JI
        S
HORT
G
RASS
T
EMPLE
S
UMIDA
R
IVER
At the Buddha-hall of SensÅ-ji
hundreds of worshippers surge up the high stone steps,
into the hall dropping coins in the bin â
look into the black-and-gold chambers, somewhere a statue
of Kannon, Kuan-yin, Kwanum, Goddess of Mercy,
Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva,
peace and compassion for all in this world-realm
this particular time,
old and young people swirl by. Incense in clouds.
We follow the flow out the south side steps,
white gravels, and back down the pilgrim
stone walkway that leads there
lined with street shops and stalls, packed with
babies in strollers, old folks in wheelchairs, girls in their tanktops
back to the gate at the entrance.
Gold Dragon Mountain, Thunder Gate,
red tree pillars and sweeping tile eaves â
back out to the streets: traffic, police, taxis,
tempura restaurants of Edo.
Cross to the riverside park space,
men cross-legged on cardboard under the shade tree
and step into the long slender riverboat water-bus
that runs down the Sumida River.
I came here unwitting, the right way,
ascending the Sumidagawa, approaching SensÅ-ji from the sea.
Under the Thunder Gate, walking the pilgrim path,
climbing the steps to
Avalokiteshvara, Bodhisattva of Compassion,
asking: please guide us through samsara.
(“Form, sensation, thought, impulse, consciousness,
are not born, not destroyed,
without gain, without loss
no hindrance! Thus no fear.”)
For all beings
living or not,     beings or not,
inside   or   outside of time
E
NVOY
A Turning Verse for the Billions of Beings
We have spoken again the unknown words of the spell
that purifies the world
turning its virtue and power back          over
to those who died in wars â in the fields â on the seas
and to the billions of spirits in the realms of
form, of no-form, or in the realm of hot desire.
Hail all true and grounded beings
in all directions,          in the realms of form,
of no-form, or of hot desire
hail all noble woke-up big-heart beings;
hail
â great wisdom of the path that goes beyond
MahÄprajñÄpÄramitÄ
(from the Chinese)
Mount St. Helens, August 1945, by G.S.
Notes
“Letting Go”
The person who was calmly calling radio information in on his two-way radio was Gerald Martin at a site two miles north of Coldwater II station and seven miles from the crater. He was a retired navy radioman volunteer from Southern California. The very first victim of the blast was volcanologist David Johnston, who was on watch at the Coldwater II Observation Post. He radioed the famous message “Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!” at 8:32 am on May 18, 1980. His station was vaporized. The viewpoint is now known as Johnston Ridge.
“Pearly Everlasting”
“. . . that big party Siddhartha went to on the night he left the house for good” is a reference to a passage in Ashvaghosha's
Acts of the Buddha
(Skt
Buddha-charita
), second century CE, describing the conclusion of an evening's entertainment in the palace. Siddhartha's many beautiful companions had finally all fallen asleep on the floor in various relaxed postures. Siddhartha, still awake, paced among them thinking, “Even the liveliest pleasures of privileged young people come to this!” or somesuch, and went down to the stable, got a horse, and rode into the forest. Cutting off his hairdo, practicing yoga and austerities, and learning to meditate, he eventually accomplished realization and became the “Enlightened One”â“The Buddha.”
“One Thousand Cranes”
With regard to the sandhill crane color “gray-beige,” the closest color in the Methuen
Handbook of Color
would be saruk (6
E
3), from
Saruq
, an Iranian village where it is a traditional color for rugs. The French derivation is
saroque
, or
saroq
.
“The Great Bell of the Gion”
The large Gion Park, shrine, and temple complex is one of the loveliest features of the eastern edge of Kyoto, the old capital of Japan. It stretches along the lower slopes of the hills. It is named for the grounds and monastery of Jetavana that were on the outskirts of the ancient Indian city of Shravasti. Jetavana was a favorite stopping place of the historical Buddha: he spent nineteen rainy seasons there. Jetavana was a site of many teachings, and is said to have had a great bell.
“SensÅ-ji”
This popular Buddhist temple is commonly referred to as the “Asakusa Kannon-dera,” that is, the “Kannon temple of the Asakusa district.” Asakusa means “short grass” as does the “sensÅ” in “SensÅ-ji.” The whole neighborhood, on the right bank of the Sumida River, has long been famous for its countless little shops, temples, parks, and popular amusements.
      In the seventh century three fishermen pulled in their net and found a Kannon image in it. They first enshrined it in a little hut. This was the beginning of what was to become a great temple, the earliest in Edo (old Tokyo). Soon there were many other Buddhist images on the altar besides the first little one (supposedly only 2.1 inches tall) â a Kannon, a Fudo, an Aizen, and much more. All of it went up in flames during World War II. The rebuilt temple has the old-style power and beauty. Throngs of pilgrims and visitors are constantly coming and going.
Thanks To
Especially:
â Carole Koda, ever so
Jack Shoemaker â comrade and publisher
Fred Swanson â scientist, philosopher, walker
Aki Tamura and the people of Oshika village
Bob Uchida, poet-musician
Chizu Hamada, for One Thousand Cranes
Deane Swickard
Dennis Dutton for his Bamiyan poem
Eldridge Moores
Gary Holthaus
Henry Zenk, for his help with Sahaptin place names and the name “Loowit”
Isabel Stirling for research help and advice
Jean Koda
Jirka Wein, of Praha and the Southern Japan Alps
Kai Snyder
Katsu Yamazato of Naha
Ko Un of Seoul
Lee Gurga
Liana Sakeliou of Athens
Misa Honde of Kobe
Morio Takizawa of Tokyo
Nanao Sakaki, for his translation of Issa's “snail,” nine bows
Peter Matthiessen
Satoru Mishima of the Kanto Plain
Shawna Ryan for ostrich and emu
Shige Hara
Steve Antler and Carla Jupiter, and the house above the river
Steve Eubanks for the Star Fire
Ursula LeGuin for her fine rare book on Mt. St. Helens,
In the Red Zone
Young poets of Putah-toi, sitting on the summer dust
Acknowledgments
Some of the poems in
Danger on Peaks
have appeared in the following publications. We thank the editors and publishers of these periodicals and books for their good work.
“Acropolis Back When” â selection as “Acropolis Hill” in
Metre
no. 7/8 Spring Summer 2000 (England); and
Facture 2,
2001.
“After Bamiyan” â
Reed,
February 2002.
“Ankle-deep in Ashes” â
Tree Rings
no. 16, January 2004.
“Baking Bread” â Poison Oak broadside, Tangram Press, May 2003.
“Carwash Time,” “Flowers in the Night Sky,” “Brighter Yellow,” and “To the Liking of Salmon” â
Tule Review
IV.1, Issue 30, Winter 2003.
“Claws/Cause” â
Shambhala Sun,
October 2002.
“Coffee, Markets, Blossoms” â
Facture 2,
2001.
“Cool Clay” â
Modern Haiku
XXXIII.3, Autumn 2002.
“For Philip Zenshin Whalen” â as a broadside by Tangram Press, 2002.
“How Many?” â
Facture 2,
2001.
“Icy Mountains Constantly Walking” â
The Gary Snyder Reader
(Counterpoint, 1999).
“In the Santa Clarita Valley” â
Facture 2,
2001.
“Night Herons” â
Where Do I Walk?
â ed. Maria Melendez, Brooke Byrd, and Adam Smith. UC Davis Arboretum, 2003.
“One Thousand Cranes” â
The Phoebe,
Sierra Foothills Audubon Society, X.03 Vol. 24.6, Nov-Dec 2003.
“Out of the underbrush,” “Chainsaw dust,” “Hammering a dent out of a bucket,” and “Baby jackrabbit on the ground” â
Modern Haiku
XXXII.3 Fall 2001.
“SensÅ-ji” and “The Great Bell of the Gion” â
Kyoto Review,
2005.
“Snow Flies, Burn Brush, Shut Down” â
Van Gogh's Ear
(Paris) Spring 2002; broadside by Ken Sanders, Dream Garden Books, February 2003.
“Summer of '97” â
The Gary Snyder Reader
(Counterpoint, 1999).
“To Go” â
Orion,
July-August 2004.
“Waiting for a Ride” â
The New Yorker,
August 2004.
“What to Tell, Still” â
Sulfur
45/46 Spring 2000; and
Look Out
(New Directions, 2002).
“Winter Almond” and “To All the Girls Whose Ears I Pierced Back Then” â
Salt Lick Quarterly
(Australia).
Audio CD Track Listing
DISC 1
1Â Â Â Â Â Â Book title,
PART I
  M
OUNT
S
T
. H
ELENS
2      The Mountain      4:46
3      The Climb      4:05
4      Atomic Dawn      1:53
5      Some Fate      1:24
6Â Â Â Â Â Â 1980Â Â Â Â Â Â 2:38
7      Blast Zone      8:57
8      To Ghost Lake      7:88
9      Pearly Everlasting      3:08
10    Enjoy the Day      0:47
PART II
  Y
ET
O
LDER
M
ASTERS
11    Brief Years      9:13
12    Glacier Ghosts      4:55
PART III
  D
AILY
L
IFE
13    What to Tell, Still      2:52
14    Strong Spirit      2:39
15    Sharing an Oyster      3:36
16Â Â Â Â Song of '97Â Â Â Â Â Â 2:49
17    Really the Real      4:11
18    Ankle Deep in Ashes      2:46
19    Winter Almond      3:25
20    Mariano Vallejo's Library      2:22
21    Waiting for a Ride      2:05
DISC 2
PART IV
  S
TEADY
, T
HEY SAY
1       Dr. Coyote      0:36
2       Claws / Cause      1:15
3       How Many?      0:49
4       Loads on the Road      0:42
5       Carwash Time      0:55
6       To All the Girls . . .      1:03
7       She Knew About Art      0:41
8       Coffee, Muskets, Blossoms      0:44
9       In the Santa Clarita Valley      0:41
10    Almost Okay Now      0:58
11    Sus      0:45
12    Day's Driving Done      0:37
13    Snow Flies, Burn Brush, Shut Down      1:02
14    Icy Mountains Constantly Walking      1:07
15    For Philip Zenshin Whalen      1:07
16    For Carole      0:41
17    Steady, They Say      0:47
PART V
  D
UST IN THE
W
IND
18    Gray Squirrel      0:43
19    One Day in Late Summer      1:14
20    Spilling the Wind      0:53
21    California Laurel      0:59
22    Baking Bread      1:06
23    One Empty Bus      2:15
24    No Shadow      1:57
25    Shandel      1:59
26    Night Herons      1:50
27    The Acropolis Back When      3:01
28    The Emu      3:34
29    The Hie Shrine . . .      2:44
30    Cormorants      2:08
31    To Go      1:36
32    One Thousand Cranes      4:57
33    For Anthea Corinne Snyder Lowry      0:58
34    The Great Bell of the Gion      2:45
PART VI
  A
FTER
B
AMIYAN
35    After Bamiyan      4:35
36    Loose on Earth      1:07
37    Falling from a Height, . . .      0:38
38    Senso-ji      3:05
39    Envoy      1:12
Gary Snyder was recorded reading
Danger On Peaks
by Jack Loeffler in Loeffler's home in northern New Mexico on November 14 and 15, 2013. Loeffler, who edited and mastered these recordings in his studio, maintains that listening to Snyder read his poetry as one follows along in the book profoundly enhances one's appreciation of the author's work.