Joy Harjo
Joy
About Joy Harjo:
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and an enrolled member of the Muskogee Tribe, Joy Harjo came to New Mexico to attend the Institute of American Indian Arts where she studied painting and theatre, not music and poetry, though she did write a few lyrics for an Indian acid rock band.
She began writing poetry when the national Indian political climate demanded singers and speakers, and was taken by the intensity and beauty possible in the craft. Her most recent book of poetry is the award-winning How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems. It wasn't until she was in Denver that she took up the saxophone because she wanted to learn how to sing and had in mind a band that would combine the poetry with a music there were no words yet to define, a music involving elements of tribal music, jazz and rock. She eventually returned to New Mexico where she began the first stirrings of what was to be Joy Harjo and Poetic Justice when she began working with Susan Williams. Their first meeting occurred several years before in Blues Alley in Washington, D.C.
Joy Harjo's poetry engages in the complex social and political issues of not only Native Americans but also other marginalized and oppressed peoples. Harjo writes her poetry using a unique narrative style, and the role of storytelling is prominent in her work. Her diverse style and complex subject matter opens up her work to numerous theoretical readings. For instance, the ecological and ecofeminist studies of Harjo's work present intriguing connections between ecofeminism and Native American literature while exploring the history of colonization and domination. Moreover, the social, cultural, and historical critiques using feminist and postcolonial theories examine how she brings awareness to the Native American struggle by incorporating the past into the present in her poetry.
She began writing poetry when the national Indian political climate demanded singers and speakers, and was taken by the intensity and beauty possible in the craft. Her most recent book of poetry is the award-winning How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems. It wasn't until she was in Denver that she took up the saxophone because she wanted to learn how to sing and had in mind a band that would combine the poetry with a music there were no words yet to define, a music involving elements of tribal music, jazz and rock. She eventually returned to New Mexico where she began the first stirrings of what was to be Joy Harjo and Poetic Justice when she began working with Susan Williams. Their first meeting occurred several years before in Blues Alley in Washington, D.C.
Joy Harjo's poetry engages in the complex social and political issues of not only Native Americans but also other marginalized and oppressed peoples. Harjo writes her poetry using a unique narrative style, and the role of storytelling is prominent in her work. Her diverse style and complex subject matter opens up her work to numerous theoretical readings. For instance, the ecological and ecofeminist studies of Harjo's work present intriguing connections between ecofeminism and Native American literature while exploring the history of colonization and domination. Moreover, the social, cultural, and historical critiques using feminist and postcolonial theories examine how she brings awareness to the Native American struggle by incorporating the past into the present in her poetry.
Call it Fear
There is this edge where shadows
and bones of some of us walk
backwards.
Talk backwards. There is this edge
call it an ocean of fear of the dark. Or
name it with other songs. Under our ribs
our hearts are bloody stars. Shine on
shine on, and horses in their galloping flight
strike the curve of ribs.
Heartbeat
and breathe back back sharply. Breathe
backwards.
There is this edge within me
I saw it once
an August Sunday morning when the heat hadn't
left this earth. And Goodluck
sat sleeping next to me in the truck.
We had never broken through the edge of the
singing at four a.m.
We had only wanted to talk, to hear
any other voice to stay alive.
And there was this edge--
not the drop of sandy rock cliff
bones of volcanic earth into
Albuquerque.
Not that,
but a string of shadow horses kicking
and pulling me out of my belly,
not into the Rio Grande but into the music
barely coming through
Sunday church singing
from the radio. Battery worn-down but the voices
talking backwards.
and bones of some of us walk
backwards.
Talk backwards. There is this edge
call it an ocean of fear of the dark. Or
name it with other songs. Under our ribs
our hearts are bloody stars. Shine on
shine on, and horses in their galloping flight
strike the curve of ribs.
Heartbeat
and breathe back back sharply. Breathe
backwards.
There is this edge within me
I saw it once
an August Sunday morning when the heat hadn't
left this earth. And Goodluck
sat sleeping next to me in the truck.
We had never broken through the edge of the
singing at four a.m.
We had only wanted to talk, to hear
any other voice to stay alive.
And there was this edge--
not the drop of sandy rock cliff
bones of volcanic earth into
Albuquerque.
Not that,
but a string of shadow horses kicking
and pulling me out of my belly,
not into the Rio Grande but into the music
barely coming through
Sunday church singing
from the radio. Battery worn-down but the voices
talking backwards.
Call it Fear:Analysis
Many of Joy Harjo’s poems depict the relationship between humans and nature but she also writes about her Native American people’s struggles as well as other oppressed people. In “Call it Fear”, There are a couple of different ways to view this poem because the language is expressed differently than how people normally speak or write. Harjo could either be focusing on fear of different struggles that everyone faces or the fear that she will remain guilty for not wanting to believe the tradition Christian beliefs she has been forced upon.
In the first interpretation, Harjo focuses on a struggle that anyone can have. That struggle is the fear of not only the fear of the dark as the poem opens with, but it could be any kind of fear. The poem is built upon the word edge. Edge describes a variety of situations and also carries different meaning. The meanings are both concrete and abstract, and refers to geographical and human space. In this poem, the writer, which could be Joy herself, it describes an intense fear or anxiety.
In one of the beginning lines the author writes “call it an ocean of fear of the dark”. The fear of the dark that she is referring to is not just a fear of darkness but a fear of the unknown. The fear could be darkness itself or any other fear a person would have which is what the “other songs” are describing. That’s why she describes it as an ocean.
Throughout the poem, the author describes an “edge” which is actual anxiousness. I think that Joy is describing her fear and how her anxiousness makes her body feel. When a person is deathly afraid as she seems to be in this poem, your heart beats fast into your ribs and you can even breathe backwards as she is describing.
Some people see this poem as her trying to come to terms with what she believes about Christianity. She has related to people that she feels a certain guilt about her beliefs and that she should believe in Christianity. This poem can be seen in a way as if she is trying to rid herself of that guilt which she believes is the bases for American culture. This poem embodies ideas of Romanticism, such as desire and rebellion, and incorporates romantic concepts, in the gothic style. Fear is an edge that her spirit, symbolized by the horses, has a desire to break through. The horses are both “in their galloping flight,” thus attempting to run free and a “shadow of horses kicking / and pulling” her out of “her belly,” thus a gothic-type ghost, ripping out her guts. Her spirit is identifiably American because it represents the conflicts associated with a desire for freedom. Harjo, specifically, expresses a desire to be free from the fear of oppressive ideas that are represented by the “Sunday church singing.” She believes more in the spiritual aspects of religion and does not think people should feel like they are forced to follow certain rules and act a certain way. Her Native American heritage comes out through this poem in that she desires freedom to believe what she feels is right and not what society is telling her. At the end of the poem, she magnifies Romanticism by using contrast. She inserts the everyday, realistic image of a radio with a worn down battery, then she ends on the haunting, romantic note of the voices “talking backward.”
Whichever the interpretation may be, the reader can be sure of one thing, Harjo is a free spirit, she wants to be free of fear, guilt, and what people think she ought to do. She wants to be free to believe what she wants to believe in and not be worried about the “drop of a sandy rock cliff”.
In the first interpretation, Harjo focuses on a struggle that anyone can have. That struggle is the fear of not only the fear of the dark as the poem opens with, but it could be any kind of fear. The poem is built upon the word edge. Edge describes a variety of situations and also carries different meaning. The meanings are both concrete and abstract, and refers to geographical and human space. In this poem, the writer, which could be Joy herself, it describes an intense fear or anxiety.
In one of the beginning lines the author writes “call it an ocean of fear of the dark”. The fear of the dark that she is referring to is not just a fear of darkness but a fear of the unknown. The fear could be darkness itself or any other fear a person would have which is what the “other songs” are describing. That’s why she describes it as an ocean.
Throughout the poem, the author describes an “edge” which is actual anxiousness. I think that Joy is describing her fear and how her anxiousness makes her body feel. When a person is deathly afraid as she seems to be in this poem, your heart beats fast into your ribs and you can even breathe backwards as she is describing.
Some people see this poem as her trying to come to terms with what she believes about Christianity. She has related to people that she feels a certain guilt about her beliefs and that she should believe in Christianity. This poem can be seen in a way as if she is trying to rid herself of that guilt which she believes is the bases for American culture. This poem embodies ideas of Romanticism, such as desire and rebellion, and incorporates romantic concepts, in the gothic style. Fear is an edge that her spirit, symbolized by the horses, has a desire to break through. The horses are both “in their galloping flight,” thus attempting to run free and a “shadow of horses kicking / and pulling” her out of “her belly,” thus a gothic-type ghost, ripping out her guts. Her spirit is identifiably American because it represents the conflicts associated with a desire for freedom. Harjo, specifically, expresses a desire to be free from the fear of oppressive ideas that are represented by the “Sunday church singing.” She believes more in the spiritual aspects of religion and does not think people should feel like they are forced to follow certain rules and act a certain way. Her Native American heritage comes out through this poem in that she desires freedom to believe what she feels is right and not what society is telling her. At the end of the poem, she magnifies Romanticism by using contrast. She inserts the everyday, realistic image of a radio with a worn down battery, then she ends on the haunting, romantic note of the voices “talking backward.”
Whichever the interpretation may be, the reader can be sure of one thing, Harjo is a free spirit, she wants to be free of fear, guilt, and what people think she ought to do. She wants to be free to believe what she wants to believe in and not be worried about the “drop of a sandy rock cliff”.
White Bear
She begins to board the flight
to Albuquerque. Late night.
But stops in the corrugated tunnel,
a space between leaving and staying,
where the night sky catches
approaching herself from here to
there, Tulsa or New York
with knives or corn meal.
The last flight someone talked
about how coming from Seattle
the pilot flew a circle
over Mt. St. Helens; she sat
quiet. (But had seen the eruption
as the earth beginning
to come apart, as in birth
out of violence.)
She watches the yellow lights
of towns below the airplane flicker,
fade and fall backwards. Somewhere,
she dreamed, there is the white bear
moving down from the north, motioning her paws
like a long arctic night, that kind
of circle and the whole world balanced in
between carved of ebony and ice
oh so hard
the clear black nights
like her daughter's eyes, and the white
bear moon, cupped like an ivory rocking
cradle, tipping back it could go
either way
all darkness
is open to light.
to Albuquerque. Late night.
But stops in the corrugated tunnel,
a space between leaving and staying,
where the night sky catches
approaching herself from here to
there, Tulsa or New York
with knives or corn meal.
The last flight someone talked
about how coming from Seattle
the pilot flew a circle
over Mt. St. Helens; she sat
quiet. (But had seen the eruption
as the earth beginning
to come apart, as in birth
out of violence.)
She watches the yellow lights
of towns below the airplane flicker,
fade and fall backwards. Somewhere,
she dreamed, there is the white bear
moving down from the north, motioning her paws
like a long arctic night, that kind
of circle and the whole world balanced in
between carved of ebony and ice
oh so hard
the clear black nights
like her daughter's eyes, and the white
bear moon, cupped like an ivory rocking
cradle, tipping back it could go
either way
all darkness
is open to light.
White Bear: Analysis
White Bear is one of Joy Harjo’s classic poems that she has written over the past half century. She wrote this poem in 1983 as she was about to fly out of a city and hop onto an air plane. First, she talks about boarding a flight out to Albuquerque. She goes on to say it is late at night to give the reader a sense of what time it is when the flight leaves. It will be more important information as the poem goes on. She then talks about how she stops in the tunnel of boarding the plane, looking at the night sky seeing her whole life.
To give some background to Joy Harjo, she is Native American by race and is very earthy and a typical Native American. She likes the outdoors, stars, animals, and many other things. Therefore, in my opinion, when she discusses looking at the night sky and seeing her whole life, she is describing on the feelings and what she sees in the night sky from her background of being Native American. The next stanza is talking about how she feels like a woman and how the things she goes through in life, and how she has to balance everything. How she has to go from here to there, like Tulsa to New York.
The next line talks about a past experience that Joy Harjo had when she was flying in an airplane. She talks about how the last flight she was on was coming from Seattle and the pilot flew a circle around Mt St Helens. Mt St Helens being the volcano that blew up many years ago, but not so long ago compared to when this poem was written and the time when the pilot flew over Mt. St. Helens. She then goes and describes the eruption that took place when the volcano blew up. She says “as the earth beginning to come apart, as in birth out of violence”. Meaning the strength and violence that happened that day when the volcano erupted.
The next part is her on the airplane, in the process of taking off and seeing the lights below her. She describes the lights as yellow, probably talking about the street lights in the town below. They were flickering and fading away as the plane begins to move away from the town. If anyone has been on a plane at night, it is a very sweet site to see when you look out of an airplane, and I believe this is the image Joy Harjo is trying to paint for us.
In my opinion, then Joy Harjo starts to dream and her Native American side comes out and describes on how a White Bears appears. She says “there is the white bear moving down from the north, motioning her paws like a long arctic night”. She is saying through the night sky, you can see the white bear moving his paw in a circle just like you can see the town’s lights from the airplane. If she is talking about white bears which are obviously polar bears, then she must be flying in the very north, which through the darkness you can still see the ice below. Therefore, you can see the white bears claw like city lights.
Harjo, I think, is relating this poem to herself and an experience she had on an airplane. Therefore, she decided to write it all down into a poem. I think she is the speaker of the poem, just describing what she sees and feels at that moment in her life. She brings, in my opinion her Native American background into it, and also things that everyone can see. This is what the poem says to me in my opinion.
To give some background to Joy Harjo, she is Native American by race and is very earthy and a typical Native American. She likes the outdoors, stars, animals, and many other things. Therefore, in my opinion, when she discusses looking at the night sky and seeing her whole life, she is describing on the feelings and what she sees in the night sky from her background of being Native American. The next stanza is talking about how she feels like a woman and how the things she goes through in life, and how she has to balance everything. How she has to go from here to there, like Tulsa to New York.
The next line talks about a past experience that Joy Harjo had when she was flying in an airplane. She talks about how the last flight she was on was coming from Seattle and the pilot flew a circle around Mt St Helens. Mt St Helens being the volcano that blew up many years ago, but not so long ago compared to when this poem was written and the time when the pilot flew over Mt. St. Helens. She then goes and describes the eruption that took place when the volcano blew up. She says “as the earth beginning to come apart, as in birth out of violence”. Meaning the strength and violence that happened that day when the volcano erupted.
The next part is her on the airplane, in the process of taking off and seeing the lights below her. She describes the lights as yellow, probably talking about the street lights in the town below. They were flickering and fading away as the plane begins to move away from the town. If anyone has been on a plane at night, it is a very sweet site to see when you look out of an airplane, and I believe this is the image Joy Harjo is trying to paint for us.
In my opinion, then Joy Harjo starts to dream and her Native American side comes out and describes on how a White Bears appears. She says “there is the white bear moving down from the north, motioning her paws like a long arctic night”. She is saying through the night sky, you can see the white bear moving his paw in a circle just like you can see the town’s lights from the airplane. If she is talking about white bears which are obviously polar bears, then she must be flying in the very north, which through the darkness you can still see the ice below. Therefore, you can see the white bears claw like city lights.
Harjo, I think, is relating this poem to herself and an experience she had on an airplane. Therefore, she decided to write it all down into a poem. I think she is the speaker of the poem, just describing what she sees and feels at that moment in her life. She brings, in my opinion her Native American background into it, and also things that everyone can see. This is what the poem says to me in my opinion.