One might think of a Harrison as just a loner who 'retreated to the natural world'. But he also collaborated with other writers, such as his beautiful poetic correspondence with Ted Kooser, published as Braided Creek. In the book there are no attributions so we don't know who wrote which poems. But sometimes it's not too hard to guess. Here's the first three. Any guesses?
I think I'm going to just head into that cabin in the woods with a roaring fire, shut myself in forever and read all these wonderful humans for the rest of my days...
Love your work here and the stuff you share so generously. Thanks
Brown Dog. One of the most underrated works of literature to be found in any of the 50 states. Incredible that Legends of the Fall had only one word revised. He clearly had enormous confidence in his own writing.
Growing to like this man's sensibilities more and more. I find his interest in Zen Buddhism curious and lovely, standing in stark contrast to Beats' showier version of the same spiritual practice.
Thank you for this magnificent tribute to Jim Harrison!
Two favorites...
Solstice Litany
JIM HARRISON 1937-2016
1
The Saturday morning meadowlark
came in from high up
with her song gliding into tall grass
still singing. How I’d like
to glide around singing in the summer
then to go south to where I already was
and find fields full of meadowlarks
in winter. But when walking my dog
I want four legs to keep up with her
as she thunders down the hill at top speed
then belly flops into the deep pond.
Lark or dog I crave the impossible.
I’m just human. All too human.
2
I was nineteen and mentally
infirm when I saw the prophet Isaiah.
The hem of his robe was as wide
as the horizon and his trunk and face
were thousands of feet up in the air.
Maybe he appeared because I had read him
so much and opened too many ancient doors.
I was cooking my life in a cracked clay
pot that was leaking. I had found
secrets I didn’t deserve to know.
When the battle for the mind is finally
over it’s late June, green and raining.
3
A violent windstorm the night before
the solstice. The house creaked and yawned.
I thought the morning might bring a bald earth,
bald as a man’s bald head but not shiny.
But dawn was fine with a few downed trees,
the yellow rosebush splendidly intact.
The grass was all there dotted with Black
Angus cattle. The grass is indestructible
except to fire but now it’s too green to burn.
What did the cattle do in this storm?
They stood with their butts toward the wind,
erect Buddhists waiting for nothing in particular.
I was in bed cringing at gusts,
imagining the contents of earth all blowing
north and piled up where the wind stopped,
the pile sky-high. No one can climb it.
A gopher comes out of a hole as if nothing happened.
4
The sun should be a couple of million miles
closer today. It wouldn’t hurt anything
and anyway this cold rainy June is hard
on me and the nesting birds. My own nest
is stupidly uncomfortable, the chair
of many years. The old windows don’t keep
the weather out, the wet wind whipping
my hair. A very old robin drops dead
on the lawn, a first for me. Millions
of birds die but we never see it—they like
privacy in this holy, fatal moment or so
I think. We can’t tell each other when we die.
Others must carry the message to and fro.
“He’s gone,” they’ll say, while writing an average poem
destined to disappear among the millions of poems
written now by mortally average poets.
5
Solstice at the cabin deep in the forest.
The full moon shines in the river, there are pale
green northern lights. A huge thunderstorm
comes slowly from the west. Lightning strikes
a nearby tamarack bursting into flame.
I go into the cabin feeling unworthy.
At dawn the tree is still smoldering
in this place the gods touched earth
Another Country
JIM HARRISON
I love these raw moist dawns with
a thousand birds you hear but can't
quite see in the mist.
My old alien body is a foreigner
struggling to get into another country.
The loon call makes me shiver.
Back at the cabin I see a book
and am not quite sure what that is.
Loved those. Thanks for sharing.
https://tumbleweedwords.substack.com/p/kicks-poem
the poetry in it all :)
I'm going to use this poem on a prayer card for my hard-lived, wildly poetic brother who just died.
He was a Viet Nam veteran....a sailor...a woodsman....an outlaw.
One might think of a Harrison as just a loner who 'retreated to the natural world'. But he also collaborated with other writers, such as his beautiful poetic correspondence with Ted Kooser, published as Braided Creek. In the book there are no attributions so we don't know who wrote which poems. But sometimes it's not too hard to guess. Here's the first three. Any guesses?
How one old tire leans up against
another, the breath gone out of both.
---
Old friend,
perhaps we work too hard
at being remembered.
---
Which way will the creek
run when time ends?
Don't ask me until
this wine bottle is empty.
Very generous. Thank you.
Just stunning - to wake up and read this. He was always one of my faves. xSH
A beautiful tribute. Love you stack! Thank you.
I think I'm going to just head into that cabin in the woods with a roaring fire, shut myself in forever and read all these wonderful humans for the rest of my days...
Love your work here and the stuff you share so generously. Thanks
Brown Dog. One of the most underrated works of literature to be found in any of the 50 states. Incredible that Legends of the Fall had only one word revised. He clearly had enormous confidence in his own writing.
Cheers to an exquisite writer! Anthony Bourdain was correct, there will be none other like him...
Wonderful. Thank you for that.
Lovely. Thank you. I've never read his work but now I'll be looking out for it.
Wonderful. Love Harrison.
Growing to like this man's sensibilities more and more. I find his interest in Zen Buddhism curious and lovely, standing in stark contrast to Beats' showier version of the same spiritual practice.
Anyway. Blah blah from me. Lovely poem.
Thank you all for introducing me to Jim Harrison. Perfectly Easter. Tears are allowed to flow. Love and beauty will prevail.
This is such a profound piece and beautiful tribute!
Thank you so much!
https://tumbleweedwords.substack.com/p/kicks-poem
the poetry in it all :)