Turtle Island

Jens Nyborg Mogensen

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Introduction and MethodCoyote and Earthmaker was blowing around in the swirl of things. Coyote finally had enough of this aimlessness and said, Earthmaker, find us a world! Earthmaker tried to get out of it, tried to excuse himself, because he knew that a world can only mean trouble. But Coyote nagged him into trying. So leaning over the surface of the vast waters, Earthmaker called up Turtle. After a long time Turtle surfaced, and Earthmaker said, Turtle, can you get me a bit of mud? Coyote wants a world. A world, said Turtle. Why bother? Oh, well. And down she dived. She went down and down and down, to the bottom of the sea. She took a great gob of mud, and started swimming toward the surface. As she spiraled and paddled upward, the streaming water washed the mud from the sides of her mouth and by the time she reached the surface (the trip took six years), nothing was left but one grain of dirt between the tips of her beak. Thatll be enough!, said Earthmaker, taking it in his hands and giving it a pad like a tortilla. Suddenly Coyote and Earthmaker were standing on a piece of ground as big as a tarp. Then Earthmaker stamped his feet, and they were standing on a flat wide plain of mud. The ocean was gone. They stood on the land.1

This is the creation story of the Nisenan and Maidu people. The Iroquios people tell that before the world was created, there was an island, floating in the sky above the eternal sea, upon which the happy skypeople lived. But a jaloux skyman tore up a tree, which stood in the center of the island, and pushed his wife through the hole. Luckily the seabirds saw the skywoman and caught her, before she fell into the sea. All the sea animals agreed to create a world for the skywoman, so they dived to the bottom and brought up mud. But they had no place to put the mud, so big turtle offered to carry it on his back. The skywoman was put on turtles back, where she gave birth to a good and an evil twin, who created all the good and evil things in the world. Different myths of Turtle Island exists, but they all refer to the continent of North America as Turtle Island. Most myths also convey the idea, that the earth and cosmos is sustained by a great turtle.2

1 2

Snyder, Gary, A Place in Space, Washington, 1995, p. 248-249 Snyder, Gary, Turtle Island, New York, 1974, Introductory Note

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In this paper I will examine and discuss identity and world perceptions in Gary Snyders book of poems Turtle Island from 1974. Secondly I will examine Gary Snyders relation to and perception of poetry, and thirdly I will discuss, whether or not it is fair to label Turtle Island a post-modern book of poetry. Turtle Island consists of 58 poems all together. Therefore I will only be able to address a small, but hopefully representative, selection of the poems. Methodologically I will analyze the poems and try to identify the main themes and effects used by Snyder, and the purpose of their use. In addition to this I will touch upon some relevant external theories that deal with the construction of identity and world perceptions. Turtle Island received a lot of attention and was widely recognised by Snyders peers, as he was awarded a Pulitzer price. The current wave of interest in and promotion of environmental issues, sparked by immediate concerns of global warming, a lack of energy resources and an imminent threat of a global environmental collapse, actualises and necessitates a discussion of human identity in relation to nature, that is how we perceive ourselves, and our relation to nature and the environment. A reading and discussion of Turtle Island, is a good way to engage in this imperative discussion. Now let us indulge in the world and poetry of Turtle Island.

Turtle IslandNature is the all important theme in Turtle Island. More or less all of the 58 poems are concerned with nature one way or another. The book is divided into three sections. A classic not very postmodern structure, which indicates a beginning, a middle and an end. However, in Turtle Island the three parts reflect the conventional division of the living world in plants, animals and human beings. The first part is titled Manzanita, after a North American shrub or small tree. The

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second part is called Magpies Song, after a bird of the crow family, and the third part is titled For the Children. The poems are, however, not exclusively concerned with either plants, animals or humans, but mingle and connects all three realms. This underlines a basic point of Snyders, which is that, humans are not distinct from nature, but an integral and dependent part of it.

As For Poets Gary Snyder is inspired by a range of nature poets from Japanese, Chinese and Indian Buddhist philosophy and poetry, to Native American myth and poetry, 19th century American nature poets as Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman, and beat poets Koureac, Ginsberg and Borroughs. Snyder, however, stands out from the rest with his intense focus on action and environment. He wants people to take a stand, and act from it. Snyder once said Find your place on the planet. Dig in, and take responsibility from there. To Snyder poetry is not only art and aesthetics, it is a tool, he uses to express his oppinions and perception of the world, and thereby a remedy for changing the world. Snyder views poetry as an transcendental art form, which is both of the inner and the outer world, and of the material and immaterial world. This is a central point in the structure of the last poem of Turtle Island titled As For Poets. The poem is divided into six stanzas. The first four are dedicated to the four elements, the earth poet, the air poet, the fire poet and the water poet3 implying that The original poetry is the sound of running water and the wind in the trees.4. The variation of the landscape, a swift gale or a loll in the eddies, the phenomenon of fire, the flow of water and all the plants and creatures are poetry. Nature is poetry, and poetry is nature, because everything is endowed with spirit, and is mutually dependent and interconnected. Nothing exists without the mind, therefore are the two last stanzas dedicated to the immaterial side of poetry, space and the mind. This holistic world view, combining spirit and matter, is inspired by shamanism and chinese taoism, which is the underlying force of the universe, a flow of energy which combines, yin and yang, water and fire and so on in a holistic existence. Snyder argues, that it is possible to achieve this insight through the mediator of poetry, because poetry is a holistic means of communication. Poetry is the marriage of the left hemisphere of the brain, that is speech, and the right hemisphere of the brain, which is song,3

The water poet also alludes to the turtle from the creation myth, which stayed down six years, to fetch the mud for earthmaker. 4 Snyder, Gary, The Politics of Ethnopoetics, p. 142 in A Place in Space, Washington, 1995

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intuition and creativity.5 In 1960 Snyder wrote that poetry is sensitive awareness to things as they are, it is history, and most of all it is Magic, the power to transform by symbol and metaphor, to create a world with forms or to destroy a world with chaos.6

The Way West: Front Lines and Affluence The classic theory of the forging of a specific American or Western identity is the famous frontier thesis, developed by Frederick Jackson Turner in the 1890s. The central claim of the frontier thesis is that The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain American development.7 According to Turner the gradual movement westward and the conquest of the west, promoted a re-evolutionary process, which forged a special American character marked by fierce indivdualism, pragmatism and egalitarianism. Turner argued, that the new continent offered a possibility for humanity to wipe the board clean, tabula resa, and start anew to build a new civilization. On the concrete level Turners argument was that the availability of free land helped the Americans escape the perils of class conflict, and build the American commitment to democracy.8 However, in the 1890s the physical frontier of the continent of North America had come to an end, that is, there was no more unoccupied agricultural territory. How was the frontier thesis mow to explain American character and identity? Turner momentarily solved the problem by widening the concept of the frontier to include the unprocessed resources of the nation. However, in the 1950s the environmental historian David Potter developed a more durable theory. Potter suggested that Turners frontier, was but a special case of the general abundance of natural resources, which had made America exceptional from the start. According to Potter, it was not exclusively the transition from free to occupied land, which forged the American charater, but the transition from abundance to scarcity.9 Potters thesis explain American identity as a result of access to an abundance of natural resources. The thesis opens up for an explanation of American foreign policy, and in a wider perspective the colonial policy of the west, as an attempt to maintain a state of abundance.5 6

Snyder, Gary, The Yogin and the Philosopher, in A Place in Space, Washington, 1995, p. 50 Snyder, Gary,Notes on the Beat Generation and the New Wind, in A Place in Space, Washington, 1995, p. 15 7 Turner, Frederick Jackson, The Significance of the Frontier in American History, Wisconsin, 1984, p. 1 (first published in Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the year 1893, Washinton D.C., 1894) 8 Cronon, William, Revisiting the Vanishing Frontier: The Legacy of Frederick Jackson Turner, p. 157 in the Western Historical Quarterly, vol. 18, no. 2, April 1987 9 Cronon, William, Revisiting the Vanishing Frontier: The Legacy of Frederick Jackson Turner, p. 171 in the Western Historical Quarterly, vol. 18, no. 2, April 1987

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Snyder is very influencd by the legacy of the frontier and the abundance thesis. However, he does not approve of the state of things, and advocates a change in our relation to nature and our perception of the world. The Way West, Underground ia about an American bear moving west. But the bear does not confine its migration to the American continent. It travels on to Japan, China, Tibet, Finland and Europe, the lands of bear mythology. Nor is the journey of the bear confined in time. The bear travels from mushroom healers in ancient China to automatic gunfire in the streets of France and Spain. The journey of the bear transcends time and space, and unites the world in a common environmental destiny. This is one of many examples of the global and holistic world view, promoted by Snyder in his poetry. It is no coincidence, that Snyder chose the bear, because the bear symbolises, the strenght of nature, durability and environmental protection, and has been worshipped all over the world and through all times as Karhu Bjorn Braun Bear10. However, bears face extinction all over the world Europa. The West. the bears are gone11. The bears are almost extinct, as are the protectors of nature, except Brunhilde, writes Snyder. Brunhilde might refer to a valkyrie from Nordic mythology, who chose the heroes to be slain in battle, and conducted them toValhalla. However, in Snyders poem Brunhilde will wake Bears, Bison, Redhands with missing fingers12 andelder wilder goddesses reborn will race the streets.13 The theme of the avenging bear/nature, is also adressed by Snyder in his essays. Inspired by ancient Japanese bear worship and the U.S. Forest Services Smokey the bear campaign, Snyder wrote a humorous buddhist sutra14, which proclaimed that Smokey the Bear was the inevitable resurfacing of our ancient benefactor as guide and teacher in the twentieth century.15 Smokey, the protector and avenger of nature, had returned bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the truth beneath appearances, cuts the roots of useless attachments, and flings damp sand on the fires of greed and war.16 In continuation of this Snyder proclaimed Support your right to arm bears17.

10 11

Snyder, Gary, Turtle Island, New York, 1974, p. 5 ibid. 12 ibid. 13 ibid. 14 In Buddhisn a canonical scripture regarded as a record of the oral techings of the Buddha. 15 Snyder, Gary, Smokey the Bear Sutra, in Snyder, Gary, A Place in Space, Washington, 1995, p. 29 16 ibid., p. 26 17 Snyder, Gary, Four Changes, with a Postscript, p. 39 in A Place in Space, Washington, 1995, p. 40

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Smokey the Bear Poster18

Front lines also deals with the theme of the frontier. However, in this poem the frontier is given the exact opposite role of Turners invigorating frontier promoting equality and democracy. Snyders frontier corrupts and depraves. The frontier is described with medical allegories of illness. It is the edge of the cancer19, and Every pulse of the rot at the heart. In the sick fat veins of America Pushes the edge up closer20. Snyders frontier is where natural resources are exploited, the land raped and the environment destroyed, in order to feed our greedy excessive and reckless way of life. In Affluence the critique of the exploitation of nature is concretized through a criticism of the waste of excessive commercial logging. However, in Snyders terminology is affluence also a good thing, because according to Snyder True affluence is not needing anything21. Snyder critizices the concept of the frontier because it creates an antagonism between man and nature. Furthermore it promotes a culture of affluence and abundance, which destroys the ecological cycle of nature.

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from www.boingboing.net/2007/01/14-week/ Snyder, Gary, Turtle Island, New York, 1974, p. 18 20 ibid. 21 Snyder, Gary, Four Changes, with a Postscript, p. 39 in A Place in Space, Washington, 1995, p.

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Night Herons, Pine Trees and Frazier Creek Falls Despite the focus on holism and global ecology in Snyders poetry, are place and localism also consistent themes throughout Turtle Island. The focus on and use of place in identity creation has been dubbed cosmopolitan regionalism or local centripitalism. Local centripitalism is a postmodern phenomenon, which emerged as a reaction against the modern argument that improved means of travel and communication had eradicated the regional differences and the importance of place and local attachment.22 The seventies however, saw a rediscovering of regionalism, localism and place in poetry and literature. The use of place is a cornerstone in Snyders project of creating a holistic world view. Snyder promotes the point that all action and identity creation is, by the nature of things, rooted in a local place. However, all local actions has a global effect, which is not always possible to foresee. The outcome of a range of individual actions may have a different outcome on a global level, because of the holistic nature of the world. Ultimately the only thing we therefore can relate to, is the place we live. Therefore we must act respectfully, tolerant and responsibly in accord with nature. However, the problem of modern society is that we are removed from the consequences of our actions. We do not directly experience the consequences of our affluent wasteful way of life, whether it be longterm or immediate consequences. Therefore we must reconnect with nature. Turtle Island contains a range of place poems, which aims at connecting the reader with nature. By Frazier Creek Falls describes an emotive natural experience. The poem starts with a beautiful, floating and empathetic description of the Frazier Creek Falls, but is suddenly abrupted by the single imperative verb listen, followed by three or four spaces that make you stop and listen, . as if you were actually standing on the cliffs watching the fall. An existential feeling of being in the world is created. After the break the poem changes character urging the reader to think, and ends with these three admonishing stanzas:

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Miller, Jim Wayne, A Cosmopolitan Regionalism in Border States: Journal of the Kentucky-Tennessee American Studies Association, No. 8 (1991)

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This living flowing land Is all there is, forever

We are it It sings through us

We could live on this Earth Without clothes or tools!23

The poem presents a holistic perception of the world, by making the reader feel as part of nature. It starts with an implicit emotive conveyance of an all-embracing holistic nature, which includes humanity. Next the same message is conveyed in a short, direct and explicit style. The first part of the poem indulge the reader in a natural existential experience, promoting an acceptance of a natural holistic world view. Afterwards the reader is made aware of the revelation through an explicit expression of the point. A range of other poems in Turtle Island tries to capture the intense unconditional feeling of a place specific experience in nature. Among these are Pine Tree Tops, On San Gabriel Ridges, and Rain in Alleghany. In these poems Snyder paints an emotive picture of nature, which the reader can relate to, indulge in and make her own. Night Herons captures the essence in one catchy line the joy of all the beings is in being24. This existential emotion is conveyed through the image of a heron standing patiently on one leg with stoic tranquility. The heron is a great symbol of being and existing in accord with the nature. For instance does the heron not hunt its prey, but waits for the prey to come within range of its deadly beak. Asian philosphy and religion contains various versions of a story about the friendship between the odd couple of a turtle and a heron. The image of a heron or a crane standing on the back of a turtle came to symbolise tao, which is the unity of the universal opposites of yin and yang. The symbol of the heron and the turtle unifies sky, earth and sea, and the elegance, purity and high spirit of the heron with the longevity, stability and wisdom of the turtle.23 24

Snyder, Gary, Turtle Island, New York, 1974, p. 41 Snyder, Gary, Turtle Island, New York, 1974, p. 36

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Heron on Turtles back25

Heron Fishing26

The Call of the Wild Wildness is the nature of nature, that is the essence of life. It is diversity and spontaneity, it is the unknown and unpredictable, it is the thing you fear and long for at the same time, it is inspiration and creativity, it is lust and it is beauty. In the poem the call of the wild is symbolised by the howl of a coyote.

And the Coyote singing is shut away for they fear the call of the wild27

Howling Coyote28

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http://sunnyokanagan.com/joshua/heronturtle.jpg http://paloaltocatholic.org/images/GreatBlueHeron.jpg 27 Snyder, Gary, Turtle Island, New York, 1974, p. 22 28 www.thebleues.com/Bleue%20Coyote/Default.asp

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However, the coyote is soon trapped and killed by man. The poem presents the destruction of the wild, embodied by the coyote, as a man made war against nature.

A war against earth. When its done therell be no place A coyote could hide.29

A concrete example of mans war against nature is the Vietnam war, which both claimed the lives of millions, but also resulted in extensive environmental destruction by means of chemical weapons, e.g. agent orange. Snyder demonstrates the meaningslessness of the war by presenting the Vietnam war as a war against nature, instead of a war against communism. Here snyder touches upon a central postmodern theme; the rejection of grand narratives30, that is ideology, religion etc. In a speech held in 1991 titled Exhortations for Baby Tigers, Snyder argues that the failure of ideologies expressed in numerous hot and cold wars, and the extensive natural destruction caused by a frantic crave for economic growth, necessitates a change in how we look at nature. Even more so, with the end of the cold war, because a unipolar capitalist world pose an even greater threat to the environment. We need the diversity, spontaneity and creativity of the wild, because we need planetary diversity in nations as much as we need human diversity in society or biological diversity29 30

Snyder, Gary, Turtle Island, New York, 1974, p. 23 Jean-Francois Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, 1979

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in the forest.31 This also leads Snyder to engage in the postmodern discussion of center versus peripheri. In It Pleases he writes:The center of power is nothing! Nothing here. Old white stone domes, Strangely quiet people, The world does what it pleases.32

For the Children The title For the Children, hints at an imperative need for a change of our ways of living and being for the sake of future generations. The three verses of the last stanza calls for an existence based on collectivity, nature and moderation:

stay together learn the flowers go light33

The inherent paradox of our selfdestructive way of living is summed up by Snyder in the line the steep climb of everything, going up, up, as we all go down.34 This line is very symptomatic of Snyders style. Snyder links the material and the immaterial world through the very simple, but effectful comparison of the physical climb of an individual, and the mental decline of humanity. We ascend on the evolutionary ladder in terms of material conditions, the so called living standards are continuously improved, but we descend on the evolutionary ladder in terms of insight into our own existence, and the conditions of life in general. This implies a critique of the modern concept of progress. To Snyder progress is not to remove ourselves from nature, or to conquer nature by means of material improvement, but to reconcile ourselves with nature, that is with ourselves and our existence.31 32

Snyder, Gary, Exhortations for Baby Tigers, 1991, p. 207 in A Place in Space, Washington, 1995 Snyder, Gary, Turtle Island, New York, 1974, p. 44 33 Snyder, Gary, Turtle Island, New York, 1974, p. 23 34 Snyder, Gary, Turtle Island, New York, 1974, p. 86

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Toward Climax or Apocalypse The critique of a linear, progressive and teleologic perception of the world is elaborated in Toward Climax, which is a four-part poem. The first part is basically a description of human evolution in terms of physiology, technology and culture. The style is enumerating and observing, listing the achievements of man from walking on two legs to language, hunting, agriculture, technological development and social organisation. But the description is not objective. Snyder seems to think that human civilization went into decay, when we in the process of urbanisation, farming and class distinctions, lost the attachment to nature and the respect for nature. We:

forget wild plants, their virtues lose dream-time lose largest size of brain-35

The second part is a critique of social darwinism and mans misconception of nature. Snyder argues, that laws are artificial and unnatural human invented concepts. Therefore is it wrong to derive laws from nature. Self-survival is not a law, and has nothing to do with reason. The spirit of nature is wild. Therefore you should not burn a rooster on the stake for laying an egg.36 The third part starts with science walks in beauty:37, and continues with a range of arguments to back this assertion. The most beautiful one goes a bow is the flex of a limb in the wind38, but the best one is nets are many knots39. This verse captures the whole of Snyders philosophy and poetry in four simple words. The verse is a holistic allegory, which demonstrates that the whole is more than the sum of the parts. Natural mathematical structures as for instance a spiderweb, is beauty and science in one. The spiderweb is a multitude of knots creating a beautiful net, in the same way as all living things; plants, animals and humans, together make up the fabric of35 36

Snyder, Gary, Turtle Island, New York, 1974, p. 83 This quote is derived from a story about the magistrates of Basel, who allegedly in 1474, after a court process, sentenced a diabolic rooster to be burned at the stake for laying an egg. 37 Snyder, Gary, Turtle Island, New York, 1974, p. 84 38 ibid. 39 ibid.

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life. In Snyders own words Human beings are but a part of the fabric of life dependent on the whole fabric for their very existence.40 The holistic world view is closely related to the cycle of nature, because to recognise the holistic, internally related and interdependent character of the world, ultimately leads to a change of human behaviour, because the way we live now, violates the laws of nature and ignores the cycle of nature, which means that we are actually committing collective suicide as a species. The solution is therefore not to conquer nature in a crave for abundance, but, with the words of one of Snyders mentors, to -become one with the knot itself, till it dissolves away.41 The last part of the poem is written in a fragmented style. The content of the last part is a comparison between forestry, especially the logging of trees, and the killing of people in the Vietnam war. Snyder seems to be asking an indirect question: Are we really heading toward a climax? The last stanza answers no, by emphasising the cycle of nature once again. A virgin forest is ancient, because both virgin and ancient forests are part of the same cycle. It is many-breasted because it changes, but also stable because the cycle repeats itself. No part of the cycle is better or worse, just different. Nature, that is life, is always at climax, because diversity is what makes life worth living. In this context the expression Toward Climax does not make any sense, because life is not linear, life is circular.

What Happened Here Before In What Happened Here Before, Snyder demonstrates the relativity of history, through his poetry, by extending his view to the history of the earth instead of confining himself to the history of mankind. The poem is structured chronologically starting 3 million years ago and describing significant events and developments up till contemporary time such as the coming of continents, plants and animals. In this perspective the history of human kind appears quite insignificant and immensely destructive. Snyders point is that the concept of human history is the root of the non-cyclic teleologic linear progressive and human centered world view, and is one of the most influential elements in the creation of identity and self perception. Most people perceive history as a linear progression from a to b. Snyder on the other hand perceives history as variations of the natural cycle of life.40 41

Snyder, Gary, Four Changes, with a Postscript, p. 32 in A Place in Space, Washington, 1995 Snyder, Gary, Four Changes, in Snyder, Gary, Turtle Island, New York, 1974, p. 91

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Turtle Island swims In the ocean-sky swirl-void Biting its tail while the worlds go On-and-off winking42

Mother Earth: Her Whales Mother Earth: Her Whales is a diverse poem, which capture, reflects and conveys Snyders message of a holistic, global and interdependent world, by means of several of the poetic effects addressed so far. The poem elaborates the paradox of material progress and mental decline with a concrete example in the 5th stanza, which goes:

And Japan quibbles for words on What kinds of whales they can kill? A once-great Buddhist nation dribbles methyl mercury like gonorrhea in the sea.43

Snyder also combines emotive descriptions of nature with explicit political and philosophical views on nature and the environment and the role of man within the realm of nature, conveyed in rigid and confronting language. The skizophrenic language and temper of the poem reflects the paradox of human existence, and the artificial division between humanity and nature. The poem changes character from calming natural descriptions of nature as whales flowing like breathing planets, to themes of whalekilling and excessive logging, and frustrated exclamations calling for existential equality by equaling people and being:

Solidarity. The People.42 43

Snyder, Gary, Turtle Island, New York, 1974, p. 80 Snyder, Gary, Turtle Island, New York, 1974, p. 47

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Standing Tree People! Flying Bird People! Swimming Sea People! Four-legged, two-legged, People!44

In the following stanza the poem reaches its climax in a machine gun-like burst of heavy words pounding the reader and asking the rhetorical question:

How can the head-heavy power-hungry politic scientist Government Third-world two-world Communist jet-set Capitalist-Imperialist paper-shuffling male bureaucrats

Non-farmer

Speak for the green of the leaf? Speak for the soil?45

The next stanza compares the exploitation of earth by politicians and the established system of power, to a vulture feasting on a doe. The allegory is continued in the following stanza, but in a totally different style. It is probably a rewriting of an old folk song called There Were Three Ravens. 46 The stanza goes:In yonder field a slain knight lies Well fly to him and eat his eyes with a down derry derry derry down down.47

The application of this old classical lyrical style, emplying trochee rhythm and end rhymes, forges a link to the past, and reflects the diversity of nature in the diverse use of language. The last stanza brings together the first and the fourth stanza of the poem, creating an idyllic description of different animals just being:44 45

ibid., p. 48 ibid. 46 Baronesse Cecilias Essential SCA Songbook, p. 13, from http://ildhafn.sca.org/ceciliassongbook.pdf 47 Snyder, Gary, Turtle Island, New York, 1974, p. 49

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An Owl winks in the shadow A lizard lifts on tiptoe Breathing hard The whales turn and glisten plunge and Sound, and rise again Flowing like breathing planets48

This way the poem ends where it began, after having gradually increased and decreased in intensity, creating a changing cycle and reflecting the interconnectedness equal to the cycle, holism and interdependence of nature itself. The last stanza is followed by a repetition of the two last verses of the fourth stanza leaving us with a light, a hope, reminding us of the swirl of things were it all began:

In the sparkling whorls

Of living light.49

Blue Whale50

48 49

ibid., p. 49 ibid. 50 www.aquariumofpacific.org/.../blue_whale/

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ConclusionGary Snyder does not write poetry for the sake of poetry itself. He writes poetry with the aim of influencing peoples perception of the world, of themselves and their place in the world. The main point conveyed by Snyder in Turtle Island is that everything is related and mutually interdependent, and if mankind does not recognise this, we will eventually destroy ourselves, and the world we live in. Basically Snyder is arguing that mankind needs to return to a cyclical perception of the world, and thereby a cyclical way of life, in order to live in accord with nature, which we are a part of. According to Snyder mankinds reckless and one-sided way of life, focusing solely on material progress, has detached mankind from nature and created an artificial division between a natural and a human world. Snyder argues that real progress is to achieve an insight into our own existence. The opposition to the cyclical and holistic perception of the world is the modern

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view of the world. The modern view is characterised by a progressive, linear and teleological perception of history and life in general. Short-sighted solutions, abundance and atomic perceptions of the world and the environment dominate the modern world view. The modern position is expressed in the frontier thesis, which Snyder flips up side down and uses to his own end. Snyder promotes his agenda through the medium of poetry, because poetry, according to Snyder, is a transcendental art form, which unites spirit and matter. Poetry is tao, the combination of yin and yang, and therefore possesses the potential of reuniting man with nature. In seeking to do this Snyder tries to create a cosmopolitan identity, based on a holistic perception of the world as a global ecological interdependent environment, and an ontological recognition of nature as the foundation of all existence. This holistic approach is reflected in the diverse and versatile character of Snyders poetry, which spans from beautiful allegories of nature, romantic folksongs, myths, philosophy, religion and abstract poetry to modern language and straightforward explicit political messages and contemporary criticism of society. Snyder tries to reflect and unite the diversity of life in his poetry. An important part of Snyders poetry is the post-modern notion of place. Snyders holistic worldview is rooted in place-specific experiences, because all action, experience and realisation are rooted in place. Other post-modern traits of Snyders poetry are his focus on ontology and neglect of epistemology. Snyders ontological position is that basic co-existence is rooted in localism and place. To recognise this is to accept our common conditions of existence and our dependence on nature. As far as Snyder rejects everything modern, it is fair to label Snyder a post-modern poet. To sum up, the notable effect of these poems of place and nature, is the creation of a common global existence and common consciousness of nature and all beings in spirit and matter, through a foundational ontology, rooted in local places and experiences of nature. In a contemporary context Snyders poetry is more relevant than ever before. It might be time to listen to the call of the wild and return to a life of respect and equilibrium on Turtle Island.

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Turtle Island