In making the handle of an axe by cutting wood with an axe the model is indeed near at hand. In exploring this axiom of Lu Ji's, Gary Snyder continues:

I am an axe

And my son a handle, soon

To be shaping again, model

And tool, craft of culture,

How we go on.

This is a collection of discovery, of insight, and of vision. These poems see the roots of community in the family, and the roots of culture and government in the community.

Formally, the 71 poems in Axe Handles range from lyrics to riddles to narratives. The collection is divided into three parts, called Loops, Little Songs for Gaia, and Nets, each containing poems of disciplined clarity. Gary Snyder knows well the great power of silence in a poem, silence that allows the mind space enough to discover the magic of song.