When I Heard Jim Harrison Died

I was on my way to Joseph D. Grant
county park, listening to Prairie Home
Companion. They played a Gillian Welch
song, and afterward, in a mellow voice

which sought to comfort, Garrison Keillor
told us Jim had died - had swum into 
a celestial river where diaphanous 
angels welcome the fluid soul at last.

I thought about him during my hike 
that afternoon, as I walked across a field
where sunlight bends through wildflower petals.

To my left stood Lick Observatory;
on clear nights, patient scientists look for
where swallows nest in the eyebrows of God.