Smokey the Bear Sutra

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An impassioned poem with Buddhist imagery and messages of environmentalism, social justice, and enlightenment.

Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet Gary Snyder composed Smokey the Bear Sutra one spring night in 1969 at a Sierra Club conference. Smokey the Bear is not the U.S. Forest Services Smokey Bear, the latter being a highly recognized advertising symbol protected by Federal law. Rather, the imagery of this Smokey comes from Buddhism; according to Snyder, Smokey the Bear Sutra is a dharma protector, modeled after Fugo, the Japanese patron of ascetics and yogis. The message of the Sutra is that we as beings are responsible to protect all other life down to the smallest forms do no harm, protect our collective selves, and honor the great impermanence.

This short work is part of Applewood’s American Roots series, tactile mementos of American passions by some of America’s most famous writers.