Poems Connecting Us To Culture

Poems By Joy Harjo

In the many poems by Joy Harjo. She speaks about the religion and
spirituality of the Muskeyee tribe. All of these poems are her own personal
experiences and what she has seen or experienced. The poems of Harjo
express how the native people view the world and how they are seen in
modern society. She stated, I feel strongly that I have a responsibility to all
the sources that I am: to all past and future ancestors, to my home country,
to all places that I touch down on and that are myself, to all voices, all
women, all of my tribe, all people, all earth, and beyond that to all
beginnings and endings. In a strange kind of sense [writing] frees me to
believe in myself, to be able to speak, to have voice, because I have to; it is
my survival.
In the poem, She Had Some Horses (1983) she incorporates a lot of
animal imagery. She also expressed that there were horses within all native
women that were just waiting to be free. This pushes the women to feel selfinflicting and not at home while they were on the reservation. She ended the
poem with, She had some horses she loved. / She had some horses she
hated. / These were the same horse. Which showed that we all have
different horses within us. Though, we need accept them. No matter how
out of place they make us feel.
In the award winning series of poems, Of Mad Love and War, she
speaks to the politics and traditions of native people and how they view the
world outside of the reservation. Which concludes to the struggles the native
people feel in modern American society. This series has many metaphors and
explanations for the women specifically and how they are treated. As well as
how they were effected how they were treated.
Four years later, she makes a continuation of the Of Mad Love and War
(1990) called The Woman who fell From the Sky. (1994) Within these
poems she symbolizes the Northern Lights for wolves and it contrasts with
the Vietnam War and alcoholism within native people. Joy uses the
symbolism to show how it felt growing up in that environment and seeing
these things in a way that could be better related to.
Throughout all of these poems she shows her true personal
experiences and connected them to her life now. Including being introduced
to modern American society and seeing two worlds collide. They were very
thought provoking and made you really think about the world around you.
Citations:

Monroe, Harriet. Poetry Foundation. Ed. Don Share. Poetry Foundation, 8 Mar. 2011. Web. 20
Jan. 2015. Path: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/foundation/staff-and-board.html.