Snyder's Nature as Feminine

Gary Snyder's poems use the theme of nature to convey feminine interpretations of the world around him. The poem 24: JV: 40075, 3:30 PM, n. of Coaldale, Nevada, A Glimpse Through a Break in the Storm of the Summit of the White Mountains is the piece I enjoyed the most from this set. Its simplicity in appearance is deceptive; it is about more than just a snowstorm. Snyder uses the tired trope of Mother Nature to show the fury and chaos of creation. He offers up a sort of chant or prayer, beginning with ‘O.’ The next line “sky cloud gate milk snow” with large gaps in between the words sounds as one recites a rosary, moving down each bead to the next prayer. It forces the reader to spend time with each word. This line brings images of whiteness, heaven and purity to mind. On the next line, the dashes between “wind-void-word” serve to create a strand of words. The storm is so awesome and fearsome the author is prostrate on the side of the road in “gravel.” Snyder cleverly uses the term “gravel” here, because with the change of one letter, “gravel” can become “grovel” meaning to lie face down. (Specifically, according to Merriam-Webster, to lie down and “to abase oneself,” to lower oneself.) Another reference to the trope of Mother Nature is the poem “Old Woman Nature.” (How fitting, I know.) The phrase “bag of bones” refers to the body, specifically an old and wrinkled body. The word “bag” on its own can also mean an unattractive woman. Working from the definition of a bag of bones as a body, I envision a room full of bodies in the line “a whole room full of bones.”  Old Woman Nature describes a witchy, mysterious sort of person. Stanzas four and five are parallels as Snyder compares a cat to an old woman. The cat is “purring” as it crunches down upon a tasty mouse and the “sweet” old lady is collecting firewood to heat soup. The cat and the woman are both non-threatening beings engaging in potentially threatening behaviors. The juxtaposition of the purring of a cat next to the crunching of a mouse head is startling. Similarly, an old woman gathering wood in the moonlight may also be cause for surprise. So surprising, in fact, the author does not even finish the word “moonlight,” trailing off at “moon…” The moon and its cycle are synonymous in this text with Woman and her menstrual cycle. Just as in For/From Lew, the recipient and sender of the ominous message: “The life cycles. All the other cycles.” The dead wood the nearing death woman gathers in the forest shows our eventual fates; we will decompose and serve as food for the upcoming generations of trees and other forms of life.