What You Should Know to be a Poet
all you can know about animals as persons.
the names of trees and flowers and weeds.
the names of stars and the movements of planets
and the moon.
your own six senses, with a watchful elegant mind.
at least one kind of traditional magic:
divination, astrology, the book of changes, the tarot;
dreams.
the illusory demons and the illusory shining gods.
kiss the ass of the devil and eat sh*t;
fuck his horny barbed cock,
fuck the hag,
and all the celestial angels
and maidens perfum’d and golden-
& then love the human: wives husbands and friends
children’s games, comic books, bubble-gum,
the weirdness of television and advertising.
work long, dry hours of dull work swallowed and accepted
and lived with and finally lovd. exhaustion,
hunger, rest.
the wild freedom of the dance, extasy
silent solitary illumination, entasy
real danger. gambles and the edge of death.
– Gary Snyder
[…] for a training in poetry that other poets have suggested, including those by Charles Olson, Gary Snyder, and (though Eshleman is critical of his “daydream College for Bards”) W.H. Auden. […]
[…] 6. What You Should Know to be a Poet […]
[…] essay takes a magical look at Gary Snyder’s poem, “What You Should Know to Be A Poet”, keeping especially in mind the soul and world repairing functions of a Bard. Any good poem or […]
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Thank you for posting this! Snyder is a brilliant and extremely intriguing poet, but this poem seems to be quite hard to find on the internet.
[…] 6. What You Should Know to be a Poet […]
[…] [4] https://ninaalvarez.net/2007/04/24/poem-of-the-day-42/ […]
Reblogged this on SunWinks! and commented:
another, particularly delightful, ars poetica!
Haha the gears of any poem here, we must be sponges even willing to mix metaphors and fuck with our readers.
I enjoyed reading thanks,
Caleb
[…] 7. What You Should Know to be a Poet […]
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[…] pinched this title from Gary Snyders poem What You Should Know to be a Poet which is a poem I found very inspiring when I came back to poetry (for about the fifth time – […]