Jeffrey Harrison
author of seven books of poetry; elected by James Merrill for the National Poetry Series; winner of Sheila Motton Prize from the New England Poetry Club, runner-up for the Poets’ Prize, and winner of the Dorset Prize; recipient of Guggenheim and NEA Fellowships; has appeared in Best American Poetry, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, Poets of the New Century, and The Twentieth Century in Poetry; featured on The Writer’s Almanac, American Life in Poetry, and Poetry Daily, former Writer-in-Residence at Phillips Academy; college professor
Last Advice
The night before my father died
I dreamed he was back home,
and I in my old room
on the third floor, and he
was calling up to me
from the bottom of the stairs
some advice I couldn’t hear
or recall the next day when,
standing over him
back in the ICU
full of the chirping of machines
we had decided to unplug,
I remembered the dream
and heard him call my name.
From Between Lakes by Jeffrey Harrison (Four Way Books, 2020)
