I’ll Go Like Jim Harrison

Written By John Jeffire

Uncorked red and pen in hand,
good eye in fever pursuit, fresh pack
of smokes cracked at the ready,
the day’s shower not yet needed.
Spruce grouse flushed from melted
hills turned creek, summer speckled
trout belly, pen trekking deeper.
Wolf scats further up off the trail,
sun talking to the unseen moon
under cone flower, blue vervain,
butterfly weed, sundrops, shy
black-eyed Susan, the woman who
left alive in vein thistle. Venison
marinating in merlot, shallots,
field asparagus, wings of northern
mushroom bloom in iron pot,
more wine in the cedar pantry,
nothing in the world beyond now.

John Jeffire

John Jeffire was born in Detroit.  In 2005, his novel Motown Burning was named Grand Prize Winner in the Mount Arrowsmith Novel Competition and in 2007 it won a Gold Medal for Regional Fiction in the Independent Publishing Awards.  Speaking of Motown Burning, former chair of the Pulitzer Jury Philip F. O'Connor said, “It works. I don't often say that, but it has a drive and integrity that gives it credible life....I find a novel with heart.” In 2009, Andra Milacca included Motown Burning in her list of “Six Savory Novels Set in Detroit” along with works by Elmore Leonard, Joyce Carol Oates, and Jeffrey Eugenides.  His first book of poetry, Stone + Fist + Brick + Bone, was nominated for a Michigan Notable Book Award in 2009.  Former U.S. Poet Laureate Philip Levine called the book “a terrific one for our city.”  His short story “Boss” appeared in Coolest American Stories 2022, which won the International Book Awards Prize for Fiction Anthologies.  In 2022, his novel River Rouge won the American Writing Awards for Legacy Fiction.  

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