Her People's Story

Poetic Gift

“It’s possible to understand the world from studying a leaf. You can comprehend the laws of aerodynamics, mathematics, poetry, and biology through the complex beauty of such a structure.

It is also possible to travel the whole globe and learn nothing.”

Joy Harjo, Poet Laureate of the United States (The Woman Who Fell from the Sky: Poems)

          Joy Harjo, a member of the Mvskoke Nation, just got a second term as Poet Laureate of the US. She speaks with the power of all great poets. “A story matrix connects us all,” she writes. “There are rules, processes and circles of responsibility in this world. And the story begins exactly where it is supposed to begin. We cannot skip any part.” And she writes with the mystical quality of all good Native story tellers: “I can hear the sizzle of newborn stars, and know anything of meaning, of the fierce magic emerging here. I am witness to flexible eternity, the evolving past, and I know we will live forever as dust or breath in the face of stars, in the shifting patterns of winds.” (excerpt from Secrets from the Center of the World)

She also speaks in practical, straight-forward language when necessary: “True power does not amass from the pain and suffering of others.” Did you know that none of the 8-billion dollars intended by Congress for the Native American tribes in the CARES act has gotten to them? They are dying at a higher rate than any other cohort of Americans from Covid-19. Once again, we have wronged them. Our legacy of neglect is unbroken.

          Still, Joy Harjo, writes the story of her people. One of those stories says that every time a newborn baby arrives, the soul of an ancestor comes with it—the one whose traits and characteristics the baby exhibits. That is why, she says, we never truly die—we keep coming back as a new life. I like that.

          I also cherish the belief that we can learn whatever we want to know from studying the earth and its elements right where we are. And that we can travel the earth for many decades and learn nothing. A curious mind is a great gift of grace. I hope you take time today to study some small part of the natural world—it holds a wealth of knowledge.

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane