Jim Harrison

Starred review from September 1, 2021

Harrison (Legends of the Fall) will always be better known as a fiction writer than a poet, but the sheer scale of this massive collection (over 900 pages) gives ample testimony to his lifelong dedication to poetry. Harrison belonged to the honorable American tradition of tale-teller rather than intellectual laborer; his poems, while they don't spin the narratives his novels and novellas do, share with them a deep grounding in landscape and geography. Harrison did not quite have the flawless ear of his hero James Wright, and his lines move along with a certain prosiness, but he had wit and feeling, plus a good eye: in "Reading Calasso," he writes, "I'm the pet dog of a family of gods / Who never gave me any training." Certain themes persist: the fascination of the natural world and an awareness of human life's troubles and limits, the latter colored at times by Harrison's Zen practice. In a collection that spans decades of living and writing, there are poems of every character, many of them superb. VERDICT This immense volume will bring great pleasure to readers of James Wright and John Haines and may be the perfect lure for ardent readers of Harrison's fiction; they will find many poems to cherish.--Graham Christian, formerly at Andover-Harvard Theological Lib., Cambridge, MA

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Starred review from September 1, 2021
Five years after Harrison's death, this robust volume is a testament to the fortitude of a great American poet's work. Bednarik's excellent editing and closely informed editor's notes further enliven Harrison's "soul life," as the poet referred to his own work. Terry Tempest Williams' intimate introduction pays tribute to her long friendship with Harrison and readies readers, like the field of prairie dogs turning towards a rising sun she so indelibly describes, for this glowing collection. Remembered by many as a fiction writer for Legends of the Fall (1979), Dalva (1988), True North (2004), and many more, Harrison thought of himself foremost as a poet. In his lifetime he published 17 collections of poems, and for the first time they are all nested together, from his first, Plain Song (1965), to his last, Dead Man's Float (2016). This landmark collection concludes with Harrison's final, untitled poem, scrawled in a notebook and found with him after he died. Years earlier, Harrison wrote, "Death steals everything except our stories." And our poems. All of life's tussles, sorrows, and glories are tucked within these pages. Harrison was the real thing, and this vigorous gathering attests to a poet's life fully lived, reflected upon, and cherished.

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