Mother Night, Jim Harrison

[moireach.livejournal.com]

Mother Night
Jim Harrison

When you wake at three AM you don't think
of your age or sex and rarely your name
or the plot of your life which has never
broken itself down into logical pieces.
At three AM you have the gift of incomprehension
wherein the galaxies make more sense
than your job or the government. Jesus at the well
with Mary Magdalene is much more vivid
than your car. You can clearly see the bear
climb to heaven on a golden rope in the children's
story no one ever wrote. Your childhood horse
named June still stomps the ground for an apple.
What is morning and what if it doesn't arrive?
One morning Mother dropped an egg and asked
me if God was the same species as we are?
Smear of light at five AM. Sound of Webber's
sheep flock and sandhill cranes across the road,
burble of irrigation ditch beneath my window.
She said, "Only lunatics save newspapers
and magazines," fried me two eggs, then said,
"If you want to understand mortality look at birds."
Blue moon, two full moons this month,
which I conclude are two full moons. In what
direction do the dead fly off the earth?
Rising sun. A thousand blackbirds pronounce day.

Comments

[saysdances.livejournal.com]

I liked this part especially:

What is morning and what if it doesn't arrive?
One morning Mother dropped an egg and asked
me if God was the same species as we are?
Smear of light at five AM.

Thank you for sharing

[moireach.livejournal.com]

No problem! I was cleaning old Writer's Almanac (http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/) e-mails out of my inbox and came across it. I love that "smear of light" line, and the last two lines.

[glass-doll.livejournal.com]

thats amazing

thanks for posting
im definately saving that poem

[moireach.livejournal.com]

:)

[ballpointsword.livejournal.com]

think the title is inspired by vonnegut or goethe?

[moireach.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that's a good question. I actually don't think I've read that Vonnegut.

[ballpointsword.livejournal.com]

i'm not surprised. it's one of his most overlooked, but also one of his best.

[patsydecline.livejournal.com]

This is a funny and uncomfortable one.