Jim Harrison - Photo by Andy Anderson/Source: Facebook

Thanks to Dragon Poet Review for publishing this poem in the recently released Winter 2016 edition.  
https://dragonpoetreview.com/

DEAR JIM HARRISON

I’ll never get used to looking up there on the  

bookshelf knowing that’s all there is or ever will be.

It has taken some time but you’ve finally left

the hard earth of time on crow’s wings flying
north from Patagonia to Antelope Butte.

It has taken some time but you’re finally on

a journey to meet your daddy and sister nesting
up there on the moon as ancient birds.

Hero worship is banal but this doesn’t change

the fact that if it weren’t for your billion word
prayers, your spirit particles windblown across
the prairie to my doorstep, I would have
ended up drunk dead or even worse a banker. 

Thanks for realizing long ago that your daughter’s

existence was enough to keep you alive.  I have a
daughter too.  And I plan to keep on trucking until
in old age I fall from the chair behind my desk.