from Myths and Texts
"I don't have to take this kind of shit,
Another twenty years
and I tell 'em to shove it"
(he was sixty-five then)
and I tell 'em to shove it"
(he was sixty-five then)
In 1934 they lived in shanties
At Hooverville, Sullivan's Gulch.
When the Portland-bound train came through
The trainmen tossed off coal.
"Thousands of boys shot and beat up
At Hooverville, Sullivan's Gulch.
When the Portland-bound train came through
The trainmen tossed off coal.
"Thousands of boys shot and beat up
For wanting a good bed, good pay,
decent food, in the woods -- "
No one knew what it meant:
"Soldiers of Discontent."
decent food, in the woods -- "
No one knew what it meant:
"Soldiers of Discontent."
© Gary Snyder.
These days I am rereadin the Kerouac's book "Dharma Bums" .. I think, that that masterpiece brings The True Answers of The Big Questions about Life, Love, Nature, en "Physis" the Greek word that Gary Snyder uses to translate the Whole meaning of Nature, as the Science..
After the belowmentioned big scene of the aforementioned book :
"...and went to sleep the night in the sand far down the beach at the foot of a cliff, where cop's wouldn't see me ane drine me away.. I coked hotdogs on freshly cut over the coals of a big wood fire and heated a can of beans and a can of cheese macaroni in the redhot hollows and drunk my newly bought wine and exulted in one of the most pleasant nights of my life.... I waded in the water and dunked a little and stood looking up the splendorus night sky of dark en diamonds.. Happy. Just in my swim sorts, barefooted, wild haired, in the red fire dark, singing, swigging wine, spitting, jumping, running - that's the way to life.. All alone and free in the soft sands of the beach by the sigh of the sea out there.. I sat crosslegged in the sand and contemplated my life..Wll there, and what difference did it make? Ah poor mind of man, and lonely man alone on the beach, and the God watching with intent smile I'd say..."..
we can read the first intoduction of Japhy Ryder who is the Prince of Mother Nature, Gary Snyder..
".. and the second I met was the member one Dharma Bum of them all and in fact it was he Japhy Ryder, who coined the phrase.. J. Ryder was a kid from eastern Oregon brought up in a log cabin deep in the woods with his father and mother and sister from the beginning a woods boy, an axman, farmer, intersested in animals and indian lore so that when he finally got to college by hook or crook he was already well equipped for his early studies in anthropology and later in Indian myth.. Finally he learned Chinese en Japanese en become an oriental scholar and discovered the greatest Dharma Bums of them all, the Zen Lunatics of China en Japan.."..
".. He was wiry, suntanned, vigorous, open, all howdies, en glad talk and even yelling hello to bums on the street en when asked a question answered right off the bat from the top or bottom of his mind I don't know which en always in a sprightly sparkling way.."..
".. Where did you meet Ray Smith?' they asked him when we walked in to the Place, the favorite bar of the hapcats arround the Beach..
'Oh I always meet my Bodhisattvas in the street!' he yelled, and ordered beers.."..
".. Sometimes he'd quiet down and just stare sadly at the floor, like a man whittling. He was merry at times. He showed dreat sympathetic interest in me and in the story about the little Saint Teresa bum and the stories I told him about my own experiences hopping freights or hitchhiking or hiking in woods. He claimed at once that I was a great 'Bodhisattva', meaning 'great wise being' or 'great wise angel,'.."..
'Who is he?'
'He's my big best friend from up the Oregon..At first you thing he's slow en stupid but actually he's a shining diamond. You'll see. Don't let him cut you to ribons. He'll make the top of your head fly away, boy, with a choice chance word.'
".. Take your clothes off en join in, Smith!' But on top of all that, the feelings about Princess, I'd also gone through an entire year of celibacy based on my feeling that lust was the direct cause of birth which was the direct cause of suffering and death and I had really no lie come to a point where I regarded lust as offensive and even cruel.."..
'Pretty girls make graves' was my saying, whenever I'd had to turn my head arround involuntarily to stare at the incomparable pretties of Indian Mexico.. And the absence of active lust in me had given me a new peaceful life that I was enjoying a great deal. But this was too much. I was still afraid to take my clothes off; also I never liked to do that in front of more than one person.. But Japhy didn't give a goddamn hoot and holler about any of this.."..
See more at link below.. Please put on BAREFOOTED ONLY..!!
http://www.angelfire.com/bc/villanelle/thedharmabums.html
G. Snyder's biography : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Snyder
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