'Riprap' by Gary Snyder

        Lay down these words
        Before your mind like rocks.
                  placed solid, by hands
        In choice of place, set
        Before the body of the mind
                  in space and time:
        Solidity of bark, leaf or wall
                  riprap of things:
        Cobble of milky way,
                  straying planets,
        These poems, people,
                  lost ponies with
        Dragging saddles --
                  and rocky sure-foot trails.
        The worlds like an endless 
                  four-dimensional
        Game of Go.
                  ants and pebbles
        In the thin loam, each rock a word
                  a creek-washed stone
        Granite: ingrained
                  with torment of fire and weight
        Crystal and sediment linked hot
                  all change, in thoughts,
        As well as things.

Literary Kicks