Poem by Gary Snyder, “Rip Rap.” Images by Mark Long, Jiangsu, China, fall 2018
Lay down these words
Before your mind like rocks.
![](https://i2.wp.com/thefarfield.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_971.jpg?fit=660%2C495)
placed solid, by hands
In choice of place, set
Before the body of the mind
in space and time:
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Solidity of bark, leaf, or wall
riprap of things:
Cobble of milky way,
straying planets,
![](https://i1.wp.com/thefarfield.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_967.jpg?fit=660%2C495)
These poems, people,
lost ponies with
Dragging saddles —
and rocky sure-foot trails.
![](https://i0.wp.com/thefarfield.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_997.jpg?fit=660%2C495)
The worlds like an endless
four-dimensional
Game of Go.
![](https://i1.wp.com/thefarfield.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_95d.jpg?fit=660%2C880)
ants and pebbles
In the thin loam, each rock a word
a creek-washed stone
Granite: ingrained
with torment of fire and weight
![](http://thefarfield.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_a11.jpg)
Crystal and sediment linked hot
all change, in thoughts,
As well as things.
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