<html class="apple-mail-supports-explicit-dark-mode"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 34px;"><font>Livingston Suite</font></span><div><font style="font-size: 34px;"><br></font></div><div><div class="x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin-inline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">Shorn of nature, </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">here but in small supply, </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">townspeople adore their dogs. </font></div></div><div class="x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin-inline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">Our dogs have never lived </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">in a town. Neither have I </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">since 1967. I adore </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">the puzzlement of our dogs. </font></div></div><div class="x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin-inline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">Each morning I walk four blocks </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">to this immense river, </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">surprised that it’s still there, </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">that it won’t simply disappear </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">into the ground like the rest of us. </font></div></div><div class="x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin-inline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">In the burnt July air </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">the strange cool odor </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">of sprinkler water</font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">creating its own little breeze </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">in the Livingston Park </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">where there are twelve rings for playing </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">horseshoes built before the fathers of lies </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">built the clouds above our heads.</font></div></div><div class="x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin-inline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">In 1968 when I was first here </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">there was a cool scent of pines </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">and melting snow from the mountains </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">carried by a southwind through the river’s </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">canyon. The scent is still here, </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">the sure fresh odor of the West.</font></div></div><div class="x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin-inline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">A concert in the park on the 4th of July sponsored </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">by the networks in New York. Someone named Sheryl Crow,</font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">Hank Williams Junior not Senior, and my old favorite, </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">Los Lobos. As a claustrophobe I can’t walk the four blocks</font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">into the crowds but from my studio </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">I can hear the Latino music wafting through maple </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">trees, imagining I’m at our winter casita near Patagonia, </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">Arizona, on the Mexican border, the music so much </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">closer to love and death than our own, the heart</font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">worn on the sleeve, the natural lament of flowers, the moon visible. Smiling skeletons are allowed to dance </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">and the gods draw closer to earth, the cash registers </font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;">drowned out in the flight of birds, the sound of water.</font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;"><br></font></div><div dir="auto"><font style="font-size: 34px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Jim Harrison</font></div></div></div></div></body></html>