Beat Poet Gary Snyder Offers Ode to His Mac

Gary Snyder via Poetryfoundation.org: http://bit.ly/819EVQ

Gary Snyder, a 79-year-old poet with roots in the Beat scene, lives in the tranquility of the Sierra Nevada foothills. He doesn’t spend a lot of time in Silicon Valley, and he hasn’t heard about the existence of the Apple tablet.

But he loves his Mac.

John Markoff of the New York Times got in touch with Snyder to chat about the latest from Apple, but what he got out of it was a new lens on the world. Or at least computing. Snyder allowed the Times to reprint, with permission, his poem “Why I Take Good Care of My Macintosh.” You’ve got to head over to read the full thing, but just consider this line:

Because its keys click like hail on a boulder,
And it winks when it goes out,

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Could not say it better myself. Is it Wednesday yet?

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About the author

Pete Mortensen is a design strategist for consulting firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete's particular Apple avocations are both around design--interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!

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Posted in Apple, Apple Tablet, Opinions |

Richard Dyer
Gone are the days when the Macintosh OS had a friendlier face. No more smiling Mac face (as in System 7, System 8, etc). No more Clarus the dogcow as the official mascot. No more ‘bomb’ icon after a crash. All these quirks have been removed in the past few years. The Mac is much more sterile now. It’s just another computer. Impersonal. Just another PC.
IcyFog
That’s not a very flattering poem.
Belengazi
He lives without electricity, says the NYT article.
How does he power said Mac?
HandyMac
Contrary to the NYTimes article, Gary doesn’t live “without electricity” at Kitkitdizze, his hand-built house in the mountains outside Nevada City, California. He is off the grid, but has had his own solar system for decades. Twenty-some years ago I read that he had a Mac Plus, which, he said, was convenient because its own internal wiring was the same 12-volt DC as his solar system.
And I have to agree, it’s not one of Gary’s best poems. See his numerous books of poetry (e.g. “Turtle Island”, which won a Pulitzer) for better.
Gary Snyder has dedicated his life to figuring out, and exemplifying, how human beings could live on this planet in a sane, sustainable, and joyous fashion. Which, unfortunately, makes him a very rare bird. See his numerous books of essays (e.g. “Earth House Hold”) for a lot of interesting and fruitful thoughts and ideas.
Mattzook
Jack Kerouac he’s not.