Gary Snyder at Morrison Library - 5 March 2009

San Francisco-born Gary Snyder is a world-renowned poet, essayist, and environmentalist. According to a UC Berkeley website, he "has published sixteen books of poetry and prose, and received the Pulitzer Prize in 1974 for Turtle Island. Snyder has traveled widely and lived for extended periods of time in Japan, where he studied and practiced Rinzai Zen. He is currently a professor at University of California, Davis." On March 5, 2009, he read in the Morrison Library in Doe Library from 12:10 pm to 1:00 pm.

I had a meeting from 10:30-noon. As soon as I left the meeting, I rushed to the library but the entrance was totally blocked by a few dozen disappointed listeners who could not get in. Robert Hass introduced Gary Snyder. However I tried, I could not make out the words. Then Gary Snyder stepped upon the podium. Again, I couldn't hear him. Hugely disappointed, I decided to leave. The consolation was that I did hear him a few years ago in Oakland.

I was also very glad that there were so many young people who still admired such "archaic" form and practitioner.

UC Berkeley promised a webcast but so far the audio or video files are not available on their website yet - http://lunchpoems.berkeley.edu/#snyder

Stay tuned.

PS:

In the comment, a kind reader forwarded me the information below:

Here's the URL for the page that has UCB's webcast: http://webcast.berkeley.edu/event_details.php?seriesid=55a026e9-b748-4d48-9d78-56f1177a334f ... also on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxVZxJIYj6o