Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Gary Snyder’s "The Flowing" is a meditation on rivers as both physical landscapes and metaphysical spaces of transformation. The poem, structured in two distinct sections—"Watershed" and *"Riverbed"—*presents a journey from purity to pollution, from sacred source to desecrated endpoint. Through a layering of natural imagery, religious invocation, and human activity, Snyder maps the movement of water as a symbolic reflection of civilization’s impact on the environment and the spiritual continuity that remains despite degradation.

The poem begins at the source with “Head doused under the bronze dragon-mouth jet / from a cliff spring—” a moment of ritual cleansing at the headwaters of the Kamo River. The "bronze dragon-mouth" evokes traditional Japanese temple fountains where visitors purify themselves before entering sacred spaces. This is reinforced by the mention of "Iwaya Fudo, Rock House Immovable, / Fudo, Lord of the Headwaters," referring to Fudo Myoo, a wrathful Buddhist deity associated with unwavering spiritual resolve. By situating the poem’s beginning at this site of both natural and spiritual emergence, Snyder establishes a river as more than a physical feature; it is a conduit of history, mythology, and ecological vitality.

The language shifts as the river moves downward, becoming part of civilization. It flows past “Riverhead rock bed—hills—(and the bridge in the Osaka smog.)” The mention of Osaka smog signals a transition from the pristine mountain spring to urban industrial pollution. The river, initially pure and sacred, now becomes “slow and filthy almost at one with the sea.” This compression of movement—from highlands to industrial wasteland—mirrors the environmental degradation that has become a recurring theme in Snyder’s work. The river is not simply water; it is a record of human intervention, a body absorbing the consequences of modernity.

In the second section, "Riverbed," the poem shifts its attention to the detritus and human activity along the river’s lower reaches. Here, the speaker finds himself “Down at the riverbed singing a little tune.” The act of singing suggests a kind of resigned acceptance, a contrast to the reverence shown at the headwaters. The riverbed is now a landscape of refuse: “tin cans, fork stick stuck up straight, / half the stones of an old black campfire ring.” This imagery portrays a place that has been used and abandoned, a site of human presence now reduced to discarded remnants.

Snyder then introduces a surreal, carnivalesque procession: “The monkey dancers, rags and tatters, / wives all whores, and the children clowns, / come skipping down.” This could be read as a metaphor for humanity’s chaotic and irreverent engagement with nature—those who once lived symbiotically with the river are now reduced to caricatures. The "monkey dancers" recall both traditional performers and the wildness of nature, now mingled with destitution and excess. The "wives all whores" line is particularly jarring, implying a loss of dignity or commodification, as if everything—people, landscapes, even cultural traditions—has been subjected to degradation in this modern industrial cycle.

Yet, despite this dystopian descent, there is cleverness and freedom in the dance. The children as "clowns" evoke innocence amidst ruin, their skipping a kind of defiance. Even in this polluted setting, life persists with a strange vitality. The image of a “gravel scoop bed of the Kamo— / a digger rig set up on truck-bed / with revolving screen to winnow out the stones” suggests a final commentary on human intervention: a mechanical sorting of nature, a futile attempt to extract order from disorder.

The juxtaposition of "Watershed" and "Riverbed" reflects a larger narrative about environmental and cultural erosion. The river, once a divine and untamed force, becomes a site of industrial consumption and waste. But despite this, the flow continues. Snyder does not present nature as defeated; rather, he acknowledges the resilience of both landscape and human life, even in decay. The river’s movement remains inevitable, carrying history, detritus, and spirit alike—an unbroken continuity beneath the surface of civilization’s upheaval.

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