Jim Harrison's "Solstice Litany"

The Daily Poem

Goldberry Studios

Education For Kids, Arts, Kids & Family

4.6 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2021

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

James Harrison (December 11, 1937 – March 26, 2016) was an American poet, novelist, and essayist. He was a prolific and versatile writer publishing over three dozen books in several genres including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, children’s literature, and memoir. He wrote screenplays, book reviews, literary criticism, and published essays on food, travel, and sport. Harrison indicated that, of all his writing, his poetry meant the most to him.[1]: 1 He published 24 novellas during his lifetime and is considered "America’s foremost master"[2] of that form. His first commercial success[1]: 5 came with the 1979 publication of the trilogy of novellas, Legends of the Fall, two of which were made into movies.

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0:00.0	Welcome back to The Daily Poem. I'm David Kern and today's December 1st, 2021.
0:06.0	It's December, which means that it is the month that Jim Harrison was born.
0:11.0	Harrison was an American poet, novelist, an essayist, who was born on December 11th, 1937 and died in 2016.
0:19.0	He wrote in a number of different forms, including poetry and essays. He has some
0:22.3	great food writing, just great food writing. And he also was a novelist and wrote in particular some
0:27.7	great novellas, including Legends of the Fall, which was made into a famous movie. He's got quite a
0:34.8	cult following across the world. and it was a wonderful writer.
0:38.9	And as I said, he was born on December 11th.
0:41.2	So now that it's December, I want to share a poem that he wrote.
0:44.7	I may share a couple by him, because he's just been on the mind, because there is a new
0:48.0	collection of his complete poems coming out later this month.
0:52.3	This first one that I'm going to share is a little bit long.
0:55.3	It's called Solstice Litany, and it's a five-part poem.
0:59.5	So I probably will just read it once.
1:01.7	If I read it twice, we'll see how it's going.
1:03.9	Keep my comments to a minimum.
1:05.3	But this is Jim Harrison's Solstice Litany.
1:14.7	The Saturday morning Meadowlark came in from high up with her song,
1:17.5	gliding into tall grass still singing.
1:21.6	How I'd like to glide around singing in the summer,
1:24.5	then to go south to where I already was,
1:28.1	and find fields full of meadow larks in winter.
	...

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