Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


LISLE'S RIVER by JAMES HARRISON

Poet Analysis

First Line: DUST FOLLOWED OUR CAR LIKE A DRY BROWN CLOUD
Last Line: WHAT JOY HAVE YOU HAD SINCE, THAT EQUALED THIS?
Subject(s): CANOES & CANOEING; HAPPINESS; MEMORY; RIVERS; WATER; JOY; DELIGHT;

Dust followed our car like a dry brown cloud.
At the river we swam, then in the canoe passed
downstream toward Manton; the current carried us
through cedar swamps, hot fields of marsh grass
where deer watched us and the killdeer shrieked.
We were at home in a thing that passes.
And that night, camped on a bluff, we ate eggs
and ham and three small trout; we drank too much
whiskey and pushed a burning stump down the bank -
it cast hurling shadows, leaves silvered and darkened,
the crash and hiss woke up a thousand birds.

Now, tell me, other than lying between some woman's legs,
what joy have you had since, that equaled this?



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