Anasazi - “Anasazi”
Anasazi is emblematic of a orthodox American pastoral for it is “tucked up in clefts in the cliffs/growing strict fields of corns and beans/sinking deeper and deeper in earth/up to your heaps in Gods.” The “Strict fields of corns and beans” endorse the setting of an American pastoral that underwrites prolific agronomic activities.
The Underground - “The Way West, Underground”
Eco-Critically, the underground is evocative of an extensive, modern-day New World Wilderness for it is “Following forests west, and rolling, following grassland,/tracking bears and mushrooms,/eating berries all the way.” The ‘forests, grassland, bears, mushrooms and berries’ propagate wildly all over the wilderness. The far-reaching ‘underground’ is neither hazardous nor ghostly despite the ubiquitous remoteness.
Void - “No Matter, Never Mind”
Gary Snyder confirms, “The Father is the Void.” The void embodies the father’s immateriality relative to that of the mother and the child.
Waves - “No Matter, Never Mind”
Gary Snyder observes, “The Wife Waves.” The waves depict the wife as a persuasive icon in the trinity-like affiliation.
Matter - “No Matter, Never Mind”
Gary Snyder notes, “Their child is Matter.” The figurative matter accentuates the child’s substantiality for she is a material by-product formulated from both ‘void and waves.’
Coyote - “Coyote Valley Spring”
The coyote is “far out in the tamal/a lost people/float” which surmises that the coyote epitomizes a primeval, Old World Wilderness that is not concomitant to the outer, unrelated environs. The suffusing geographical estrangement makes the populaces there to appear forlorn.
