Jim Harrison (1937–2016) published numerous books, including Legends of the Fall, Dalva, and Dead Man’s Float (Copper Canyon Press, 2016), his final poetry collection. His work has been translated into two dozen languages.

Photograph by Andy Anderson.

Three Poems

by Jim Harrison

She

Nothing is as it appears to be.
What is this aging? What am I to make
of these pale, brutal numbers? For a moment I’m fourteen.
The sky didn’t fall in, it fell out.
Men suck on their sugary black pistols
but the world isn’t ruled for a second.
The pen is mightier than the sword
only in the fretwork of a poet’s language.

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