The Shape of the Voyage

Cover Art by Russell Chatham, from 1989’s The Theory & Practice of Rivers and New Poems (Clark City Press).

Jim Harrison (1937-2016), of whom I have written before, published The Theory and Practice of Rivers (Winn Books) in 1986. He included the poem of the same name in a later collection, as well. Here, I offer an excerpt from that lengthy poem–the first two stanzas. They appeal to me on this wintry December day that provokes the same sort of self-reflection found in Harrison’s poem.

The Theory and Practice of Rivers

The rivers of my life:
moving looms of light,
anchored beneath the log
at night I can see the moon
up through the water
as shattered milk, the nudge
of fishes, belly and back
in turn grating against log
and bottom; and letting go, the current
lifts me up and out
into the dark, gathering motion,
drifting into an eddy
with a sideways swirl,
the sandbar cooler than the air:
to speak it clearly,
how the water goes
is how the earth is shaped.

It is not so much that I got
there from here, which is everyone’s
story: but the shape
of the voyage, how it pushed
outward in every direction
until it stopped:
roots of plants and trees,
certain coral heads,
photos of splintered lightning,
blood vessels,
the shapes of creeks and rivers.

This entry was posted on December 6, 2016 at 10:15 PM and is filed under Environmental Literature, Fly Fishing Literature, The Arts, The Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “The Shape of the Voyage”

Jack Wallingford Says:
December 9, 2016 at 7:26 PM | Reply
This book is no longer available from Harrison’s oevre. I have tried on Amazon and rarely do i find it at book sales. Anyone have an extra copy?

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- Kenov Says:
  December 11, 2016 at 12:12 PM | Reply
  Yes. Surprising that it is out of print; I assume there must be some copyright related reason for that.
  
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- Hanna Says:
  December 20, 2016 at 6:37 AM | Reply
  I actually found it on Amazon. The only Problem, it’s around $130… and the collectors edition is 400 bucks even. I would have bought it otherwise but that’s a little over the budget I had in mind.
  Maybe there will be an eBook released soon, let’s hope. Until then I would appreciate if you could post a little excerpt every once in a while. Thanks a lot!
  
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  - Kenov Says:
    December 20, 2016 at 9:53 AM
    I will do my best. It’s frustrating when things like that are just out-of-reach.
    
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  - Jack Wallingford Says:
    December 20, 2016 at 6:03 PM
    I just finished an order with Amazon and it was not on then. You must have caught it at the right time. You are correct, that amount puts it out of budget now.
    
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