Gary Snyder: Learning

[BSquared]

At today's graduation ceremony, the valedictorian read Gary Snyder's poem, "Learning." I'd forgotten that it was the source of one of my favorite mantras:

stay together
learn the flowers
go light

[Shawn]

So nice I had to look the rest of it up -

For the Children

The rising hills, the slopes,
of statistics
lie before us.
the steep climb
of everything, going up,
up, as we all
go down.

In the next century
or the one beyond that,
they say,
are valleys, pastures,
we can meet there in peace
if we make it.

To climb these coming crests
one word to you, to
you and your children:

stay together
learn the flowers
go light

— Gary Snyder, from Turtle Island