Regarding the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize

From my twenties on, the magazine Poetry Chicago seemed the main center for American poetry.

Of course, I also lobbied for the importance and value of West Coast poets and their work, but Poetry magazine was a kind of gold standard, going back to its early modernist editors.

Now that the Lilly Foundation has come forward to help it, and reinvigorate not only the magazine but the entire world of contemporary American poetry, I can truly say I feel honored to receive the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.

I was living and studying from the late 1950s through the 1960s in Kyoto, Japan. Henry Rago was the poetry editor then. He wrote me in Japan and let me know he'd like to see my work.

So I sent it, and for a spell, I was being published in Poetry Chicago. Art is always, somewhat, not only local, but personal. I never met him, but this was a great support for a person living way outside the country.

My latest book of poetry is "Danger on Peaks, Counterpoint 2004," dealing with volcanoes, love, death and 9/11 in a Buddhist light.

My recent book of essays, "Back on the Fire, Counterpoint 2007," deals with the positive possibilities of wildfires, wisdom and foolishness.

Right now, I'm working on an essay for a book on Mt. Tamalpais, in collaboration with print artist Tom Killion. This is the magic mountain near the magic city of San Francisco.

— Gary Snyder, May 1, the Workers Day, 2008