Here is the definitive collection of poetry from one of America’s best-loved writers—now available in paperback. With the publication of this book, eight volumes of poetry were brought back into print, including the early nature-based lyrics of Plain Song, the explosive Outlyer & Ghazals, and the startling "correspondence" with a dead Russian poet in Letters to Yesenin. Also included is an introduction by Harrison, several previously uncollected poems, and "Geo-Bestiary," a 34-part paean to earthly passions. The Shape of the Journey confirms Jim Harrison’s place among the most brilliant and essential poets writing today.
"Behind the words one always feels the presence of a passionate, exuberant man who is at the same time possessed of a quick, subtle intelligence and a deeply questioning attitude toward life. Harrison writes so winningly that one is simply content to be in the presence of a writer this vital, this large-spirited."—The New York Times Book Review
"(An) untrammelled renegade genius… here’s a poet talking to you instead of around himself, while doing absolutely brilliant and outrageous things with language."—Publishers Weekly
"Readers can wander the woods of this collection for a lifetime and still be amazed at what they find."—Booklist (starred review.)
When the cloth edition of this book was first published, it immediately became one of Copper Canyon Press’s all-time bestsellers. It was featured on Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac, became a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was selected as one of the "Top-Ten Books of 1998" by Booklist.
Jim Harrison is the author of twenty books, including Legends of the Fall and The Road Home. He has also written numerous screenplays and served as the food columnist for Esquire magazine. He lives in Michigan and Arizona.
Dead Deer
Amid pale green milkweed, wild clover,
a rotted deer
curled, shaglike,
after a winter so cold
the trees split open.
I think she couldn't keep up with
the others (they had no place
to go) and her food,
frozen grass and twigs,
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
LIKE WALKING THROUGH A BEAUTIFUL FOREST,
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This review is from: Shape of the Journey (Paperback)
Author Jim Harrison says, "this book is the portion of my life that means the most to me". His poems vividly reflect the truth of his words. He writes about himself, his journey through life in outrageous and brilliant language weaving images of nature and earthly passions. Pause, and wander through the forests of this collection. It is lovely, lyrical and passionately beautiful.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Browsable, rather than readable.,
By
This review is from: Shape of the Journey (Paperback)
Jim Harrison, The Shape of the Journey: New and Collected Poems (Copper Canyon, 1998)Jim Harrison is a good poet. He's been below the radar for many, many years, writing poems about nature and drinking and general irascibility that few people have actually read. Which is a shame, because when he's really on his game, his work is comparable to that of the best nature poets working today (Hayden Carruth being the obvious parallel here). And more often than not, he is on his game in this book. Its major flaw is not the quality of the work therein, but the quantity. Even Bukowski, the most readable poet on the planet in the twentieth century, knew that stopping at about three hundred fifty pages of work was a good idea. Harrison's doughty tome weighs in at over four hundred fifty, and his stuff is not nearly as readable as Bukowski's. Nor is it as short. Even Carruth, whose Collected Shorter Poems 1946-1991 (also released by Copper Canyon) is one of the few books that is the exception to this rule (over seven hundred pages, and every one a gem), took all the long poems and placed them in a separate, smaller volume. Harrison, on the other hand, mixes with glee. You get a ten-line ghazal on one page, then a thirty-page longpoem following. The effect is somewhat jarring at times. It's worth reading, but be prepared to linger over it for months, perhaps years. There's too much going on here to just take it out of the library. ***
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
- Conversations with Jim Harrison (Literary Conversations) by Robert Demott in Front Matter, and page 195
- True North by Jim Harrison in Front Matter
- The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand by Jim Harrison in Front Matter
- The Beast God Forgot to Invent: Novellas by Jim Harrison in Front Matter
- Sacred Calling, Secular Accountability: Law and Ethics in Complementary and Spiritual Counseling by Ronald Bullis in Back Matter
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