This is Episode 24 of Poems to Live Well By.

Today's poem is "I Went into the Maverick Bar", by Gary Snyder

Gary Snyder was associated with the “Beat” generation of the 1950s (which included the likes of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg). He has been described as “the poet laureate of deep ecology”, and his work has long been immersed in an appreciation of Buddhist spirituality and the natural world.

This poem is a snapshot of a moment in time, in a bar somewhere sometime, when among the usual bar-room stuff, a couple get up to dance. The moment inspires in the poet a wide vi of everything from the idea of America to a life’s “real work”.

You can read the poem here.

Music Credit:

Once Upon a Time by Alex-Productions | https://onsound.eu/