Gary Snyder,
sublime and
seminal poet of
ecological awareness and
activism [YouTube link], Zen
appreciation of "ordinary mind" and American speech,
shamanistic intimacy with the natural world, and
surviving member of the Beat Generation (West Coast posse) at age 78, has
won the $100,000 Ruth Lilly poetry prize. "
Gary Snyder is in essence a contemporary devotional poet, though he is not devoted to any one god or way of being so much as to Being itself,"
said Poetry magazine editor Christian Wiman. "His poetry is a testament to the sacredness of the natural world and our relation to it, and a prophecy of what we stand to lose if we forget that relation.” Previous recipients of the Lilly prize include
Adrienne Rich,
John Ashbery, and
W.S. Merwin. [Previously mentioned
here.]
posted by digaman
on May 7, 2008 -
43 comments
An astonishing bequest of $100 million to
Poetry Magazine instantly turns a 4-person literary journal into the wealthiest poetry organization on the planet. The benefactress,
Ruth Lilly, has given millions to libraries and medical research labs in the midwest. But poetry has never been showered with such munificence until now. What will this donation achieve beyond ensuring the existence of the journal
into perpetuity?
posted by dougb
on Nov 18, 2002 -
48 comments
