The Theory & Practice of Rivers and New Poems

by Jim Harrison, Russell Chatham (Illustrator)

Poetry by noted author Jim Harrison.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

53 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1990

About the author

Jim Harrison was born in Grayling, Michigan, to Winfield Sprague Harrison, a county agricultural agent, and Norma Olivia (Wahlgren) Harrison, both avid readers. He married Linda King in 1959 with whom he has two daughters.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

His awards include National Academy of Arts grants (1967, 68, 69), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1969-70), the Spirit of the West Award from the Mountain & Plains Booksellers Association, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007).

Much of Harrison's writing depicts sparsely populated regions of North America with many stories set in places such as Nebraska's Sand Hills, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Montana's mountains, and along the Arizona-Mexico border.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

RIP, Jim Harrison, whose novel, Legends of the Fall, made him nationally known for a time. A writer of the earth, who I discovered, living in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was living in the Leelanau Peninsula of the northern lower peninsula of Michigan. I liked his poetry even better than his novels. These poems will reward you for attention, lovely, muscular, unsentimental.

[Alyson Hagy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading, and re-reading, Harrison for almost 40 years. Some of his work holds up. Some doesn't. Such are the risks and rewards of a long writing career. The best of Harrison's poetry may long outlast him. In this strong collection, he writes about birds, human yearning, and human foolishness as well as anyone I've read. You just have to roll with his idiosyncratic delight in shifting tone...and you have to suffer his obsessions. I'm fine with that. All artists should be flagrant with their obsessions.

[Malaena · Rating 5 out of 5]

perfect book for a weekend in northern michigan. west side king.

“We are our consciousness/ and it is the god in us/ who struggles to be in everyone/ in order to be ourselves.” (Acting)

[Joe Stinnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice edition of a good book of poetry, mostly about the natural world. Much more precise than his novels which I also love.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful collection by a wonderful poet. "The Theory & Practice of Rivers" is a long poem that takes up about half the book and one of Harrison's masterpieces. Highly recommended.

[Clemie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Très intéressant.

[Ocean Chamberlain · Rating 5 out of 5]

yes

[Katlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of jewels in here, but many of the poems felt overwrought and too lofty, as if the only goal in the book were to elevate every event, indiscriminately, as holy. Which is fine for journaling, or for treasuring one's experiences... But as a published collection it often felt unaware of an audience, or at least of any audience that differed from the poet himself. Still, a few good ones.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harrison weaves his pragmatic yet tender views on nature through thoughts of loss and helplessness. I love how he does that.

[Susan McQuilkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book of poetry—some lines have resonated with me throughout life: “I am not yet alert enough to live”. . . “I am never going to wake up and play the piano.”

[Keith Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

(This is a reread, in the brand new (2025) edition, part of Copper Canyon Press's "The Heart's Work: Jim Harrison's Poetic Legacy," with a wonderful introduction by Rebecca Solnit, and a holographic reprint of the draft of the long title poem.)

This is a poem that keeps opening up for me, every time I return to it. Harrison kept thinking about things, and kept experiencing the world around him, kept stepping into the river, and what felt a bit easy to me many years ago, I now realize was hard earned, deeply felt. Yes, the lines are simple, mostly unadorned, but they carry something -- ok, I'll call it a resonance -- that brings me into the poem and out of myself. The elegiac parts of this poem were what first moved me (the death of his sixteen year old neice), but now I am grabbed by the places the elegy demands we visit. I could quote almost anywhere, but here are a few lines early on:

The days are stacked against
what we think we are.
After a month of interior weeping
it occurred to me that in times like these
I have nothing to fall back on
exept the sun and moon and earth.
I dress in camouflage and crawl
around swamps and forest, seeing
the bitch coyote five times but never
before she sees me. Her look
is curious, almost a smile.
The days are stacked against
what we think we are.
It is almost impossible
to surprise ourselves.

[lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

The days are finally stacked
against what we think we are:
how long can I stare at the river?
Three months in a row now
with no signs of stopping,
glancing to the right, an almost
embarrassed feeling that the river
will stop flowing and I can go home.
The days, at last, are stacked against
what we think we are.
Who in their most hallowed, sleepless
night with the moon seven feet
outside the window, the moon
that the river swallows, would wish
it otherwise?

[jimmy cobb · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I warned myself all night
but then halfway between my ears
I turned toward the heavens
and reached the top of my head.
From there I can go just about
anywhere I want and I’ve never
found my way back home.”

[John Fossett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poetry.
Reading these poems was like hanging out with Tom Waits for an afternoon. And I love Tom Waits!
A sort of beatnik-like wandering through the world with lots of killer phrases.

[jacmaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

en plus d’avoir un des plus beaux titres au monde, ce livre prouve (mais le fallait-il encore?) que jim harrison est un grand poète

[Brian Brogan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars