The Present Poem by Jim Harrison
The Present
The cost of flight is landing.
On this warm winter day in the southwest,
down here on the edge of the border I want
to go to France where we all came from
where the Occident was born near the ancient
caves near Lascaux. At home I'm only
sitting on the lip of this black hole, a well
that descends to the center of the earth.
With a big telescope aimed straight down
I see a red dot of fire and hear the beast howling.
My back is suppurating with disease,
the heart lurches left and right,
the brain sings its ditties.
Everywhere blank white movies wait to be seen.
The skylark dove within inches of the rocks
before it stopped and rose again.
God's toes are buried deep in the earth.
He's ready to run. But where?
One of those works where the feeling of the imagery contributes more to the overall meaning of the piece than a literal deconstruction of the language. I was overall somewhat ambivalent (I did enjoy the concepts of the origin of occidental man, and peering into the center of the earth) but the last 2 lines really pulled it all together for me.
The skylark dove within.....in the earth.' is beautiful. Thanks for sharing. Simply loved it.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/25/2024 8:35:19 PM # 1.0.0.1119
An amazing peek into the spirit of Jim Harrison (a gifted soul) , he starts with the human limit of flying is we must come down, and finishes with the notion of God's limits, flying he sticks his toes in the soul of the earth so he can be down, only to discover, just as we humans, truly there is nowhere else to go. We all, even God, want and need to fly, from the very first human to God.