Called to Be a Poet
JANUARY 27, 2007 Listen to this Story
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Independent producer Scott Carrier takes a hike with nature-lover, writer and poet Jim Harrison. Harrison is best known for his series of short stories, "Legends of the Fall." His new novel is called "Returning to Earth." The two talk of things of man and earth as they walk along the Yellowstone River in Paradise Valley, Mont.
"Mother Night" by Jim Harrison from Saving Daylight.
When you wake at three AM you don't think
of your age or sex and rarely your name
or the plot of your life which has never
broken itself down into logical pieces.
At three AM you have the gift of incomprehension
wherein the galaxies make more sense
than your job or the government. Jesus at the well
with Mary Magdalene is much more vivid
than your car. You can clearly see the bear
climb to heaven on a golden rope in the children's
story no one ever wrote. Your childhood horse
named June still stomps the ground for an apple.
What is morning and what if it doesn't arrive?
One morning Mother dropped an egg and asked
me if God was the same species as we are?
Smear of light at five AM. Sound of Webber's
sheep flock and sandhill cranes across the road,
burble of irrigation ditch beneath my window.
She said, "Only lunatics save newspapers
and magazines," fried me two eggs, then said,
"If you want to understand mortality look at birds."
Blue moon, two full moons this month,
which I conclude are two full moons. In what
direction do the dead fly off the earth?
Rising sun. A thousand blackbirds pronounce day.
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- Music Bridge:
- A Spire
- Artist: Tape
- CD: Rideau
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