July 5: A U.P. Poem, Jim Harrison, "Two Girls"

I couldn't go to bed tonight without giving you a poem.  And I wanted it to be a Upper Peninsula poem.

Jim Harrison is the closest the U.P. of Michigan has to a resident literary god.  I say that because of his success.  He made his name as a novelist.  He wrote a little book titled Legends of the Fall that was adapted into a movie starring some guy named Brad Pitt.  But Harrison is also a poet, and a damn good one.  He once said, "I'm a poet and we tend to err on the side that life is more than it appears rather than less."

Harrison's poem "Two Girls" isn't set in the U.P., but it has a U.P. feel to it with coyotes and deer.  We even have a resident mountain lion population, which is close to a jaguar.

Saint Marty wishes all his disciples sweet dreams.

Two Girls

Late November (full moon last night),
a cold patagonia moon, the misty air
tinkled slightly, a rank-smelling bull
in the creek bottom seemed to be crying.
Coyotes yelped up the canyon
where they took a trip-wire photo of a jaguar
last spring.  I hope he's sleeping or eating
a delicious deer.  Our two little girl dogs
are peeing in the midnight yard, nervous
about the bull.  They can't imagine a jaguar.

This guy looks like he's from the U.P.