Dead Man's Float

Harrison, Jim (2016). Dead Man’s Float. Fort Townsend, WA.Copper Canyon. ISBN 978-1-55659-445-8. Hardcover.Dead Man’s Float is Jim Harrison’s most recent book of poetry and one of his best. At first glace, the poems in the book might seem like stereotypical death poems from some self-pitying poet who sits around feeling sorry for himself. They are not that. Instead, the poems illuminate the existential quality of the human condition as it can be lived by an individual who possesses a powerful, moving voice.Throughout his career as a writer, Harrison has demonstrated that he is fully human, but also fully aware. There is not a great distance between his novels and his poetry; his novels always seem poetic and his poems always tell the most poignant of stories. The poems in Dead Man’s Float are no different, except that Harrison, like all of us, is aging. Yet, as he moves through live he is able to offer us observations and comments that rise squarely from his own experiences and ideas. In no way could the poems in Dead Man’s Float be considered stereotypical or characteristic of a common view.Instead, Harrison’s poetry here gives the reader uncommon views and insights into both the thinking and feeling that help create the human who is doing the living. As a poet, Harrison comes across as one who can feel and express something uniquely human. It is both dread and appreciation. Grief and hope. It is not that he operates “all over the map,” but that the territory he lives in is so large.One of my elderly friends recently told me that he no longer cares about the mundane verbosity in everyday life. He said what he longs to hear is honest and accurate ideas about what everything might mean. He told me that when he feels particularly isolated, he reads a couple of Harrison’s poems and remembers who we are. It would seem that Dead Man’s Float is there to remind us of that and of who we might be. Harrison is above all else a storyteller. In this new book, he tells magical stories about himself and about us. Again, he shows that it is the human spirit that rises to endure.In a poem commenting about the earth, Harrison says “…you wonder whether God lit the wrong end of a cigarette, tossed it away.” In another he says that “Pain guides our lives very well.” Such lines lead us to understand that we are part of life’s complexities that mix birds, poems, dogs, stars, pain, life, and death into one large soup through which we all must swim. Or sometimes float. Harrison is the more experienced swimmer who has taken note of the journey.

I was late to the "Jim Harrison" party, and for that I'll always be regretful and embarrassed. However, the beauty of literature is that even when the authors are gone (Harrison died the day before Easter in 2016), their work and legacy will remain. And what a legacy Harrison seems to have left us.I'm a poet and I'm drawn to poetry, but I'm also pulled by solid fiction. I'm pulled by honest and truthful prose, artful blemishes left behind until what remains is a purified section of prose that can hit you with the hardest punch. Harrison, like Ernest Hemingway and Raymond Carver, had that elegant ability. He carved away the fluff with a literary knife."Dead Man's Float", Harrison's final book and my introduction to his writing (aside from watching Legends of the Fall throughout the years and being regretfully ignorant of its original source), has elbowed its way quickly into the small selection of my favorite books of all time. Few collections of poetry have embedded themselves in my mind and my own creativity such as this one.My new favorite poem, of all poems written since the beginning of time, is "Zona" from this collection. In a simple seven lines, Harrison confirmed that it's not the amount of words that a writer pours into a thought in order to deeply affect someone. It's the talent for making sure that the words that you do include are perfect in their simplicity and impact. In "Zona" Harrison sets up the familiar themes of aging, looming work, and the unstoppable magnitude of time, but then quickly he focuses in on a simple silver lining; in this case that the radishes are good this year and how to best prepare them for eating. Harrison's poems and prose in this collection are all comprised of this style. I only have shown my favorite example of them.It's a sign of a talented poet when in seven lines we are shown the largest and unavoidable themes of life and death and then suddenly forced into a simple quaint observation of a diminutive feature of the world, that something as simple as radish can have the enormity of one's body decaying in the epilogue of life. Harrison was such a poet.You will be missed, sir, but what a legacy you've left us.

This is a collection of poems to remember a favorite writer at the top of his game. I loved this volume of Harrison's work. He was a Buddhist, and his poems reflect that. No arrogant "I" to insert himself, only the wondering, the observation, and the acceptance of death in all life's wondrous creation while the human body deteriorates. I have recommended his work to students, friends, and other writers. I read his poem "River" at my mother's funeral and felt the loss of another bird lover who shared Harrison's love of birds while applauding the joy. How does he do that? One of my favorite novellas of his is "The Beige Dolorosa," which also reflects his awe for birds. I read this book at night, flipping back and forth in order and it all holds up, each poem its own entity, each observation and insight a spectacular and quiet moment.

I start by saying I have not read much poetry. I am a fan of some of Robert Frost’s work but not much beyond that ... until now. I read Harrison’s True North and decided to give this a try. Amazing!! I love this collection of poems. I read it daily for the last month and a half. Savoring a poem or two at a time. It is a feast ... enjoy!!

No pretenses here, just an old dude keeping it real right before the end, when one has nothing to lose or gain. Some of the poems fall a bit flat, but often they soar through their honesty and grittiness. Not wordy. Not pretty. But they touch the heart nonetheless.

My first read of this man's poetry as he struggles with life in his later years. Would look forward to reading some of his earlier works as well.

Jim Harrison was such a complex man, but all you have to do is love literature and you will love him.

Jim Harrison is my kind of poet.He writes the way I wish I could.I wish I had discovered his work years ago.I hope to read more of his poems.

Great book

This the final collection of Harrison poems are rather special. They are both funny and sad. The writing is wonderful, and I prefer these to the last two collections. It is great he left us with so much but sad that there will be no more