For the Children
by Gary Snyder
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
From Turtle Island (New Directions, 1974)
© 2006 by Gary Snyder.
Gary Snyder won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry with Turtle Island. A wise and remarkable work of poems and prose most of which is still relevant today in the 21st century.