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Paul D Comstock's avatar

Damn. Right there with him.

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BONNIE NARADZAY's avatar

Man Dog by Jim Harrison

I envied the dog lying in the yard

so I did it. But there was a pebble

under my flank so I got up and looked

for the pebble, brushed it away

and lay back down. My dog thus far

overlooked the pebble. I guess it's her thick

Lab fur. With my head downhill the blood gorged

me with ideas. Not good. Got up. Turned around. Now I

see hundreds of infinitesimal ants. I'm on an

ant home. I get up and move five feet.

The dog hasn't moved from her serene place.

Now I'm rather too near a thicket where

I saw a big black snake last week that might decide

to join me. I moved near the actual dog this time

but she got up and went under the porch. She doesn't like

it when I'm acting weird. I'm failing as a dog

when my own kind rejects me, but doing better

than when I envied birds, the creature the least

like us, therefore utterly enviable. To be sure

I cheeped a lot but didn't try to fly.

We humans can take off but are no good at landing.

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monsters and men's avatar

Last two lines got to my heart. Beautiful!

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Kimberly Richardson's avatar

God I love him.

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Ellen Lord's avatar

wonderful imagery....i love Harrison.

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Dian Parker's avatar

That last line is a killer.

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Bob Doran's avatar

Here’s what I thought about, that the math, 68+7=75. So he wrote that prose poem about lives and time at 75 -- and I’m now 72 going on 73.

That gives me a lot of time think and to reach his level of understanding of my many lives. That’s plenty, but I shouldn’t waste them.

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Kelly Johnson's avatar

Oh wow. ❤️

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Patricia L.'s avatar

Reading Jim Harrison with the full moon, brilliant. in the sky outside my window. Doesn't get any better than that.

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Angela Cummings's avatar

"A chickadee so light ... she wasn't believable." Magic.

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Alan Marshall Clark's avatar

O yes, as ever, with Jim.

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bedo's avatar

"Time is a mystery

that can tip us upside down."

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Paul Moore's avatar

It is the DELIGHT of life to be many ages without seeing the end of time

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drewzmuze's avatar

🙏🏽✨️

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Evan Stark's avatar

Those last couple lines. Damn

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Nathan Keller's avatar

W/ out seeing t end of time. Glad to hear it. This is Jim Harrison the UP poet? His library poems collected from 2012 are so different. But not knowing the end means he kept the door open for more of his life of Bokowskiing. Beautiful poem. I published my end of times today because i trust woman as far i can throw her. Good verbiage to you all. Take many notes. For example new humans donot read. Ask them. Do you know what a miser is? No, " i cannot read" she or he will say. Dudes and ladies. Poetry? It is up to you now. The cat, sat. On the matt.

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Andrew Stuart's avatar

This is Beautiful. Captures perfectly a conversation I was having with my older brother yesterday.

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