Exegi monumentum aere perennius - country lit?

Country is pure poetry. It’s the muse’s whisper with a little bit of violin section. Afflatus in leather boots in fact. Well, there is at least one poem referring directly to country music. Ladies and gentlemen, a round of applause for Gary Snyder’s I Went Into The Maverick Bar
Gary Snyder is one of the Beats, probably less popular than Kerouac but still alive. His lifestyle seems not so spectacular, however very active: he’s a Zen believer, environmental activist, lecturer, poet and vagabond.
The poem has been published in 1974, while Merle Haggard’s song it refers to (already described - Okie from Muskogie) in 1969. It quotes the first verse of Haggard’s song with a slightly changed spelling of Muskogee (Muskokie). Interestingly both works share similarly ambiguous attitude towards the small – town, Southern values.
Haggard’s lyrics ridicule the Okies as squares. However, by the end of the song I start to wonder whether Haggard really had no sympathy for the stiff, straight and provincial culture of the South. Think of The Fugitives movement in American literature (google it) – the Southern people, the “gentle irony” ones, understatements, mock heroic verse, the helpless enchantment of the region, the struggle to make it culturally or intellectually noticeable. I believe there’s some similarity here. At least I badly need one to prove my thesis.
Similarly, Snyder's poem places the speaking person as the rebellious stranger in the squares’ community in Farmington. He’s the marijuana and LSD kind of person (still worse – the unthinkable long hair!!!). He observes the common and naïve entertainments of the people somewhat being over them. Yet he feels certain longing for them – he "could almost love [them]." Still realizing it is the stupid America. So he comes back to the “real work." By the way, the last verse is a quote from Lenin.
However, in Snyder’s the ambiguity about the small – town values may be explained by his little crush on Robinson Jeffers (eco - poet [whom I long thought to be a woman]). Still, Snyder is double ironic in his poem – not only he ridicules the Okies from his beat viewpoint but also makes them listen to music which in fact mocks them (or doesn’t it?)
It is worthwhile to see the two texts as a kind of dialogue. You start to wonder then if country could go beat or the beats could go country. Two big themes of both currents already intertwine – America and music. And both Ginsberg and Haggard wore beards.