"Drinking Song" by Jim Harrison

Our favorite photo, 2007

We were sorry to hear of Jim Harrison's passing. The literary fly fisherman par excellence. Seems like he was just one stop ahead of us on the train, and now he's gone and gotten off.

We'll continue to post him.  You can find all our past posts here: Jim Harrison

You can find the New York Times obit HERE.

And here is the poem of his that has gotten the most hits on this blog. A fitting tribute.

Drinking Song 

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.