In Search of Small Gods

By Jim Harrison
(Copper Canyon Press, Paperback, 9781556593192, 104pp.)

Publication Date: September 2010

Other Editions of This Title: Hardcover

Categories: American - General

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Selected by Indie Booksellers for the Spring 2009 Poetry List
“In Search of Small Gods, by Jim Harrison, is his twelfth book of poetry -- and my favorite so far. This collection exhibits a fine sense of humor along with a sharp awareness of the tragic human condition. The poems contain fish, birds, death, peonies, many beloved dogs, a book of poems by Su Tung-po's, various wacky speculations, a few regrets and tall tales that wander off into strange dreams. Harrison skillfully calls all this to our attention, along with the landscapes of Michigan, Montana and the Arizona/Mexico border country. The world and all these things shine through this book.”
-- Karl Pohrt, Shaman Drum Bookshop, Ann Arbor, MI


Description

"Funny and tender beneath a wry and gruff seen-it-all veneer, Harrison contemplates death, discerns divinity in every stone and leaf, and nobility in ordinary lives, and laughs at our attempts to separate ourselves from the rest of nature."—Booklist

"His poems succeed on the basis of an open heart and a still-ravenous appetite for life."—The Texas Observer

Now in paperback, Jim Harrison's best-selling poetry book In Search of Small Gods is where birds and humans converse, autobiographies are fluid, and unknown gods flutter just out of sight. In terrains real and imagined—from remote canyons and anonymous thickets in the American West to secret basements in World War II Europe—Harrison calls upon readers to live fully in a world where "Death steals everything except our stories."

Maybe the problem is that I got involved with the wrong crowd of
gods when I was seven. At first they weren't harmful and only showed
themselves as fish, birds, especially herons and loons, turtles, a bobcat
and a small bear, but not deer and rabbits who only offered themselves
as food. And maybe I spent too much time inside the water of
lakes and rivers. Underwater seemed like the safest church I could
go to . . .

Jim Harrison is one of America's most versatile and celebrated writers. He is the author of over thirty books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, including Legends of the Fall and Dalva. His work has been translated into two dozen languages. He lives in Arizona and Montana.




About the Author

Jim Harrison: Jim Harrison, one of America’s most versatile and celebrated writers, is the author of thirty books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction—including Legends of the Fall, the acclaimed trilogy of novellas, and The Shape of the Journey: New and Collected Poems. His books have been translated into two dozen languages, and in 2007 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. With a fondness for open space and anonymous thickets, he divides his time between Montana and southern Arizona.

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