Selected & New Poems

Jim Harrison return to the world of poetry after a self-imposed hiatus caused by his exhaustion after writing Letters to Yesenin and Returning to Earth (both included in their entirety in this volume). During this period Harrison wrote Legends of the Fall—a collection of novellas—and two novels: Farmer and Warlock. He evolved a new approach to his poetry, hoping to avoid both academic formalism and the vogue of hygienic confessions. The voice of the selected poems speaks with the courage, intelligence, and wit that is Harrison’s alone.

“Jim Harrison grew up in northern Michigan and shares with that other Michigan poet, Theodore Roethke, not only the longing to be part of the instinctual world, but also the remarkable knowledge of plant and animal life that comes only with long familiarity and close observation. This raises an incidental question: How many more poets of this kind will we see in the United States? It is a melancholy thought that Mr. Harrison may be the last of the species.”—Poetry