Cooped Up? Get Uncooped.

While nature novels and memoirs seem to entrap us during a backcountry trip nearly as much as the landscape itself, I tend to also include a small book of poetry with me. If only to break up my longer book so not to finish it my first night or two out, I feel they are usually small enough and offer a different pace at which to observe the surroundings.

My pick for nature poet is Gary Snyder, a contemplative poet rooted in the history and the connectivity of the land. A beat critic much like Thoreau, Snyder paints the landscape with beauty while never holding back the black ink to portray the faults of our responsibilities.  His 1974 collection "Turtle Island" won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. While we may read him for "you-are-there reading", his goal is to call people to become true natives of the land.

Recommended - Turtle Island, No Nature: New and Selected Poems

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• treks
• literature