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Roberto Harrison was born in Oregon to Panamanian parents; he and his family moved to Panama when he was a year old, and then to Delaware in 1969. Harrison pursued studies in mathematics and computer science as an undergraduate; after a year of graduate work in mathematics at Indiana University, Bloomington, he traveled in the United States, Europe, and North Africa. His collections of poetry are Counter Daemons (2006), Os (2006), elemental song (2006), reflector (2008), and Urraca (2009).
Counter Daemons makes use of computer science and programming terminology. Poet Leslie Scalapino observed: "Roberto Harrison's Daemons are loops (as in computer-generated, or installations using sound) yet his series of continuous loops does not repeat but adds: to make being 'in the wilderness full.'" The subjects of politics, identity, landscape, and travel all surface regularly in his poetry.
Harrison edits Crayon with Andrew Levy as well as the Bronze Skull Press Chapbook series. In 2008 a show of his drawings and journal entries, entitled Ineffable Isthmus, was featured at the Woodland Pattern Book Center gallery. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Elemental Song, a long poem of 44 stanzas, is printed inkjet with covers letterpressed by the Dexterity Press, Chicago. This chapbook was printed in an edition of 100.
Excerpt
a cycle starts delivery
of braided water, each seat
stays still for the disaster tree