Monday 5 March 2012

GARY SNYDER ON THE JURASSIC & P.S....


This aint the Pacific Rim.This aint Haight.Kyoto, this is not. & none know of Gary Snyder on this Jurassic coast. Caught bus to Portland w/ GS in the bag, and for a walk, starting at the easternmost end of this 50 million year-old coast. but i sit instead, out of the chill-wind @ The Cove House Inn, w/ a half-pint of Broadside (Adnam's Brewery), and crisps, before the fire.



Altho sunny& bright and i'm "merry & bright"(Henry Miller), i feel i would be much reduced by the chill breeze in my skimpy, summer-wear. No walking along the West Weares path or the 9 miles, on pebbles, to Abbotsbury. This is THE JURASSIC, and planning to come here, i quickly grabbed the nearest Snyder books to accompany me = AXE HANDLES and Timothy Gray's book, "Gary Snyder and The Pacific Rim". Jurassic and Pacific Rim seemed romantic juxtaposition.
i ponder another half & feel the sun thru window - warming but not burning, my neck - it is only 5th March. The wood-burner, not the beer, accounts for my rosied cheeks. Time to split. Plenty of time, if indoor warmth thru window be trusted to walk on the pebbled beach awhile.








P.S.

i pop across road from Chesil and "Cove" to visit the painter, Liz Wright in her studio/home. Have not seen her in a while. She is happy to drop paint-brush, offers tea and we chat. Lots of new work. We trade/barter my new "The Thomas Hardy Poems" - (quirky, found poems from a Hardy text) and i happily take home a print of one of her new works....Best of all, she shows me a collaborative "film" of her paintings with voiced-over poems by her old amigo, Mike Sarne, of "Come Outside" fame in the 60's. He has yet to actually recite/read the poems himself, for the film. But both poems and paintings work very well...AND i am surprised at the quality of the poetry ! i would never have thought it. Here's me, with Snyder in my bag, very much my bag...but yes, the Wright/Sarne collaboration was excellent, and found on this old Jurassic coast at Chiswell, Portland.

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1 comment:

  1. Wow! A day and a half! And am blown away by refs to Mike Sarne! I doubt ive thought of "come outside" since them far off Sixties! Great snaps btw. As you say, Jurassic & Pacific Rim good combination. But there has to be an English poet for your pocket? Surely? I thought Liz wright had sold up and gone to Portugal? France? Spain? And yr pint of Adnams, yes, we agreed i think that was the best drop at the Cove. Thanks for this.

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