Postlude

Jim Harrison and unknown associate

So… a little over a year ago, Jilly2016 and I began a challenge called, “28 Days of Unreason.”  It was based on quotes Jilly culled from Jim Harrison’s book of poems, Songs of Unreason.  This year we revisited it, simply calling it, “Days of Unreason.”  What a blast!  I’ll grant that Harrison’s poems aren’t everyone’s cup of pudding, but the quotes served as wonderful springboards into a pool of mind-stretching poetry.  I enjoyed the challenge last year, and enjoyed it even more this year!  Poetry gets tired, insipid without an occasional kick in the pants — whether from artwork, music, other people’s poetry, or an accidental bump on the head.

This is the final day of Days of Unreason, 2017:

“Why does the mind compose this music well
before the words occur?” – Jim Harrison

 

While the flute, the zither,
and the bowed saw still filled
the concert hall of his mind, Jim avowed,
“Unlike a lot of writers, I don’t have any craving
to be understood.”

Jim, the mind composes
to keep us writing;
thinking.

As long as the notes climb,
fall, slur, bend, blend
and create dissonance –

we are still breathing.

Let the eulogist pretend
she knows

the words.