Poetry Reading: "Drinking Song" by Jim Harrison

Drinking Song
by Jim Harrison

I want to die in the saddle. An enemy of civilization,
I want to walk around in the woods, fish and drink.

I'm going to be a child about it and I can't help it, I was
born this way and it makes me very happy to fish and
               drink.

I left when it was still dark and walked on the path to the
river, the Yellow Dog, where I spent the day fishing
               and drinking.

After she left me and I quit my job and wept for a year and
all my poems were born dead, I decided I would only
               fish and drink.

Water will never leave earth and whiskey is good for the
               brain.
What else am I supposed to do in these last days but fish
               and drink?

In the river was a trout and I was on the bank, my heart
               in my
chest, clouds above, she was in NY forever and I, fishing
               and drinking.