Where the Waters Take You

Neil Harrison's poems are inspired by his love of the outdoors and a curiosity and understanding that derives from being in and appreciating a place. His experiences as hunter and fisherman have led him not to easy answering but to mystical questioning.

And your entire concept of time wavers
as you question how you know this place.
Were you predator here, then, or prey--

For Harrison, the past--those events and thoughts that went before which make us who we are--invites our attention but remains mysterious and ultimately unknowable.

you lose yourself once more and begin
the dark, difficult passage out
to wherever the waters take you.

Wilderness, wildlife, friendship, family, humor, and Harrison's patient, thoughtful observations suffuse his graceful poems with the beauty and wisdom of living close to the earth.

In response to something like instinct
the first word rises, others follow,
and a new migration begins
the archetypal bid for survival,
direction perhaps predetermined
back at the beginning of time,
soon lines of words almost seem to fly.

Neil Harrison's poetry publications include Story (a chapbook from Logan House Press, 1995 & 1996), In a River of Wind (Bridge Burner's Publishing, 2000), Into the River Canyon at Dusk (Lone Willow Press, 2005), and Back in the Animal Kingdom (Pinyon Publishing, 2011). His fiction has appeared most recently in Paddlefish, Platte Valley Review, and Pinyon Review. He is a former instructor of English and Creative Writing at Wayne State College, in Wayne, Nebraska, and at Northeast Community College in Norfolk, Nebraska, where he also coordinated the Visiting Writers Series. He now resides in Norfolk, makes diamond-willow walking sticks, wine from various wild fruits, and excursions to the local fields and streams with his third Deutsche Drahthaar, the Happy Dog.