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The Woman Who Fell from The Sky: Poems
Joy Harjo, one of this country's foremost Native American voices, combines elements of storytelling, prayer, and song, informed by her interest in jazz and by her North American tribal background, in this, her fourth volume of poetry.
She draws from the Native American tradition of praising the land and the spirit, the realities of American culture, and the concept of feminine individuality.
She draws from the Native American tradition of praising the land and the spirit, the realities of American culture, and the concept of feminine individuality.
88 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
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About the author
Joy Harjo
99 books2,024 followersBio Joy Harjo
Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. She has released four award-winning CD's of original music and won a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist of the Year. She performs nationally and internationally solo and with her band, The Arrow Dynamics. She has appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, in venues in every major U.S. city and internationally. Most recently she performed We Were There When Jazz Was Invented at the Chan Centre at UBC in Vancouver, BC, and appeared at the San Miguel Writer’s Conference in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her one-woman show, Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light, which features guitarist Larry Mitchell premiered in Los Angeles in 2009, with recent performances at Joe’s Pub in New York City, LaJolla Playhouse as part of the Native Voices at the Autry, and the University of British Columbia. Her seven books of poetry include such well-known titles as How We Became Human- New and Selected Poems and She Had Some Horses. Her awards include the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. She was recently awarded 2011 Artist of the Year from the Mvskoke Women’s Leadership Initiative, and a Rasmuson US Artists Fellowship. She is a founding board member and treasurer of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Harjo writes a column Comings and Goings for her tribal newspaper, the Muscogee Nation News. Soul Talk, Song Language, Conversations with Joy Harjo was recently released from Wesleyan University Press. Crazy Brave, a memoir is her newest publication from W.W. Norton, and a new album of music is being produced by the drummer/producer Barrett Martin. She is at work on a new shows: We Were There When Jazz Was Invented, a musical story that proves southeastern indigenous tribes were part of the origins of American music. She lives in the Mvskoke Nation of Oklahoma.
Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. She has released four award-winning CD's of original music and won a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist of the Year. She performs nationally and internationally solo and with her band, The Arrow Dynamics. She has appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, in venues in every major U.S. city and internationally. Most recently she performed We Were There When Jazz Was Invented at the Chan Centre at UBC in Vancouver, BC, and appeared at the San Miguel Writer’s Conference in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her one-woman show, Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light, which features guitarist Larry Mitchell premiered in Los Angeles in 2009, with recent performances at Joe’s Pub in New York City, LaJolla Playhouse as part of the Native Voices at the Autry, and the University of British Columbia. Her seven books of poetry include such well-known titles as How We Became Human- New and Selected Poems and She Had Some Horses. Her awards include the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. She was recently awarded 2011 Artist of the Year from the Mvskoke Women’s Leadership Initiative, and a Rasmuson US Artists Fellowship. She is a founding board member and treasurer of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Harjo writes a column Comings and Goings for her tribal newspaper, the Muscogee Nation News. Soul Talk, Song Language, Conversations with Joy Harjo was recently released from Wesleyan University Press. Crazy Brave, a memoir is her newest publication from W.W. Norton, and a new album of music is being produced by the drummer/producer Barrett Martin. She is at work on a new shows: We Were There When Jazz Was Invented, a musical story that proves southeastern indigenous tribes were part of the origins of American music. She lives in the Mvskoke Nation of Oklahoma.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
February 7, 2017
This year I am participating in Bingo in the group catching up on classics. For my poetry square, I selected The Woman Who Fell From the Sky by Joy Harjo. Joy Harjo is a member of the Muscogee Native American tribe and upon publication of this collection is a professor at the University of Arizona. A poet who finds inspiration in the works of Audre Lorde, Harjo writes of personal issues, Native American folk tales, and social issues that have been plaguing her community for centuries. A collection of heart felt poems, Harjo is a leading voice in Native American circles.
Harjo finds strength in her family history, which is part of many native tribes. She writes how members of her family found their names, relationships with the land and animals, and touching stories about members of her own family. The centerpiece and title poem of this collection, The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, gets its inspiration from the moving tale of Harjo's grandmother who raised seven children in poverty. Rather than loving her children, each one was an additional burden for her. Even though a gifted storyteller, she did not express love to her children or grandchildren. Harjo has been determined to change this cycle and has welcomed her own grandchildren with unconditional love.
I enjoyed the tales of powwows and viewing of the northern lights and other forays into Native American culture. These demonstrate to me that the culture is thriving despite the efforts of white America to subjugate Native Americans over the years. From her position as a story teller, Harjo urges her people to cut down on alcohol dependence, which has killed too many victims over the years, either directly or indirectly. Her story of two taxi drivers gunned down in acts of senseless violence and of innocent victims killed by gang violence in Oakland were especially moving. Harjo hopes that members of her community take her words to heart and limit their violence and chemical dependencies, even though she realizes that this will take a sustained group effort.
Although I was captivated by the Harjo's story telling abilities, her deep prose has won her many awards including the William Carlos Williams Award and two NEA grants. Whether the stories in these poems are happy or depressing, Harjo's moving prose is deeply personal and pulls the reader in immediately. The first two poems in the collection, Reconciliation: A Prayer and The Creation Story, set the tone for the entire book. Additionally, following each poem, Harjo reveals the story behind the story, allowing for deeper insights into her work and life.
Because of classics Bingo, I am reading various works and genres that I would not have normally exposed myself to. Joy Harjo's poetry falls into both categories, and her prose is extremely moving that I am glad to have read it. A leading Native American voice who writes deeply personal prose, The Woman Who Fell From the Sky rates 5 scintillating stars.
Harjo finds strength in her family history, which is part of many native tribes. She writes how members of her family found their names, relationships with the land and animals, and touching stories about members of her own family. The centerpiece and title poem of this collection, The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, gets its inspiration from the moving tale of Harjo's grandmother who raised seven children in poverty. Rather than loving her children, each one was an additional burden for her. Even though a gifted storyteller, she did not express love to her children or grandchildren. Harjo has been determined to change this cycle and has welcomed her own grandchildren with unconditional love.
I enjoyed the tales of powwows and viewing of the northern lights and other forays into Native American culture. These demonstrate to me that the culture is thriving despite the efforts of white America to subjugate Native Americans over the years. From her position as a story teller, Harjo urges her people to cut down on alcohol dependence, which has killed too many victims over the years, either directly or indirectly. Her story of two taxi drivers gunned down in acts of senseless violence and of innocent victims killed by gang violence in Oakland were especially moving. Harjo hopes that members of her community take her words to heart and limit their violence and chemical dependencies, even though she realizes that this will take a sustained group effort.
Although I was captivated by the Harjo's story telling abilities, her deep prose has won her many awards including the William Carlos Williams Award and two NEA grants. Whether the stories in these poems are happy or depressing, Harjo's moving prose is deeply personal and pulls the reader in immediately. The first two poems in the collection, Reconciliation: A Prayer and The Creation Story, set the tone for the entire book. Additionally, following each poem, Harjo reveals the story behind the story, allowing for deeper insights into her work and life.
Because of classics Bingo, I am reading various works and genres that I would not have normally exposed myself to. Joy Harjo's poetry falls into both categories, and her prose is extremely moving that I am glad to have read it. A leading Native American voice who writes deeply personal prose, The Woman Who Fell From the Sky rates 5 scintillating stars.
September 10, 2012
Gorgeous book of poetry. Each poem ends with a short essay which I found very enlightening.
Some beautiful poems I want to remember
Reconciliation, Sonata for the Invisible, and Promise.
Some passages which spoke to me personally
"All acts of kindness are lights in the war for justice"
"It had been years since I'd seen the watermonster who lived at the bottom of the lake. He had disappeared in the age of reason, as a mystery that never happened."
"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 perfect structure. It's also possible to travel the whole globe and learn nothing."
Some beautiful poems I want to remember
Reconciliation, Sonata for the Invisible, and Promise.
Some passages which spoke to me personally
"All acts of kindness are lights in the war for justice"
"It had been years since I'd seen the watermonster who lived at the bottom of the lake. He had disappeared in the age of reason, as a mystery that never happened."
"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 perfect structure. It's also possible to travel the whole globe and learn nothing."
November 13, 2015
I started by not understanding what was being said in this book, then the words sank into me and I was able to make a connection with what was being said. The poem describing PTSD really opened the path to understanding what was happening. These poems are at once beautiful and inspiring. They bring a sense of the timelessness of life and the immediacy of the present.
January 4, 2008
A few amazing poems, several that are simply interesting/decent. Harjo relies on one syntactic structure overmuch (the hallucinatory run-on sentence overpacked with too many images). Sometimes, though, these experiments work and her dreamy poetry becomes visionary.
March 7, 2016
Joy Harjo's poetry has a natural rhythm that begs to be spoken aloud. I liked that after each poem, there's a note explaining the inspiration for the piece, whether it was a conversation with a friend or a piece of cultural lore. Some of these footnotes are as enjoyable as the poems themselves.
April 20, 2017
68pp. This is a gorgeous collection of poetry. Harjo is Native American, Muscogee tribe and her mystical/mythical storytelling seeps through these poems, accompanied by underlying loss and displacement. This is a conversation between joy and sorrow, which is universal. She manages it beautifully from her specific perspective, including small verses that give context to the poems and are poems themselves. If you are interested in poetry, this is a book to add to your collection.
The Creation Story
I'm not afraid of love
or its consequence of light.
It's not easy to say this
or anything when my entrails
dangle between paradise
and fear.
I am ashamed
I never had the words
to carry a friend from her death
to the stars
correctly.
Or the words to keep
my people safe
from drought
or gunshot.
The stars who were created by words
are circling over this house
formed of calcium, of blood--
this house
in danger of being torn apart
by stones of fear.
If these words can do anything
I say bless this house
with stars.
Transfix us with love.
"There are many versions of the creation story. In one Muscogee version, the ground opened up and the people came out.
The Wind Clan people were the first to emerge. Henry Marsey Hargo, my great-grandfather, was of the Wind Clan, my great-grandmother Katie Monahwee of the Tiger Clan. Because clan association comes with one's mother, this was my grandmother Naomi Harjo's clan. She passed this clan on to my father.
This creation story lives within me and is probably the most dynamic point in the structure of my family's DNA."
pp. 3-4
The Creation Story
I'm not afraid of love
or its consequence of light.
It's not easy to say this
or anything when my entrails
dangle between paradise
and fear.
I am ashamed
I never had the words
to carry a friend from her death
to the stars
correctly.
Or the words to keep
my people safe
from drought
or gunshot.
The stars who were created by words
are circling over this house
formed of calcium, of blood--
this house
in danger of being torn apart
by stones of fear.
If these words can do anything
I say bless this house
with stars.
Transfix us with love.
"There are many versions of the creation story. In one Muscogee version, the ground opened up and the people came out.
The Wind Clan people were the first to emerge. Henry Marsey Hargo, my great-grandfather, was of the Wind Clan, my great-grandmother Katie Monahwee of the Tiger Clan. Because clan association comes with one's mother, this was my grandmother Naomi Harjo's clan. She passed this clan on to my father.
This creation story lives within me and is probably the most dynamic point in the structure of my family's DNA."
pp. 3-4
August 10, 2025
Reading joy harjo’s poems is such a gift and a joy. Her writing is at once grounded and vivid, both stories and dreams. I felt my emotions like constellations around me as I read, her words pulling and pushing at me like tides. I had to take a breath to be, to remember, to reflect after each one. Favorites: Wolf Warrior, Promise of Blue Horses, and Promise.
I also really appreciated that after each poem, she gave some explanation about the meaning behind the poem.
I also really appreciated that after each poem, she gave some explanation about the meaning behind the poem.
June 29, 2020
No one is surprised more than me that I'm not fond of this. Too structurally repetitive. Gives the impress of contemplative spiritualism, but very little here transcended easy descriptions.
December 22, 2023
I love Joy Harjo
January 20, 2024
harjo never disappoints. 10/10
December 29, 2025
“The imagining needs praise as does any living thing.”
I will read every thing written by Joy Harjo and then read them again over and over.
I will read every thing written by Joy Harjo and then read them again over and over.
October 11, 2020
Our Poet Laureate!
"Fishing" is downright brilliant. I mean, brilliant.
"Fishing" is downright brilliant. I mean, brilliant.
May 18, 2022
Perfect set of poems that combines elements of storytelling, prayer, and music. There's a wisdom in every word that reimagines the universe as we know it. I was blown away by this collection, the first by Harjo that I've read, and can't wait to check out more of her work.
May 4, 2025
Seeing as April is National Poetry Month, I decided I had to read at least one poetry book, so picked one that I’ve had on my nightstand for ages. This is a wonderful collection and I really liked how she included a paragraph after each poem to share insights or inspiration. My favorites were “Reconciliation: A Prayer”, “A Postcolonial Tale”, “Mourning Song”, “The Dawn Appears with Butterflies”, and “Perhaps the World Ends Here.”
March 23, 2021
What a beautiful book of poems from our USA poet laureate! Harjo is a wordsmith, a beautiful writer, her words flow so smoothly. I have little knowledge of poetry, save the usual educated layperson's contact with poetry in general. But we in the US are blessed to have this great poet shepherding us about what is good poetry. Harjo has won so many awards. She is an enrolled member of the Muscogee tribe and is a wonderful example of someone who brings awareness of the Native American today. Harjo uses many symbols, words, examples of Native American beliefs and practices. She is very aware of pain, nature, emotion in her poems. Best of all, in this book, she included a short comment after each poem giving additional knowledge about what she meant or what happened to draw something to her attention. The whole book is a lesson for anyone in poetry, in lovely words, meaningful words, and in Native American culture. Both the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s and the Vietnam War are major themes or influences on her poetry.
October 21, 2020
Thought provoking, vivid, and exceptional in every way. I don't usually buy poetry... and this wasn't a fast read but one I savored. I read each piece individually and gave it time to fully resonate while I pondered just how extraordinary it was to me. I learned quite a bit about a Native American imagry and persepective that I hadn't fully embraced. I had many discussions with NA friends of mine but I was too young and too naive at the time to truly grasp what was being described. I'm very thankful for this book. It brought to mind a dear friend who is no longer amongst us but who's spirit visits and always brings a smile.
August 26, 2009
liked it, not my favorite kind of poetry but is concerned with several types of origin stories as well as family and cultural trauma.
October 2, 2010
I use this book when I teach. I like that it came with a cd, which I also use when I teach.
April 15, 2021
THE MYTH OF BLACKBIRDS
The hours we counted precious were blackbirds in the density of Washington. Taxis toured the labyrinth with passengers of mist as the myth of ancient love took the shape of two figures carrying the dawn tenderly on their shoulders to the shores of the Potomac.
We fled the drama of lit marble in the capitol for a refuge held up by sweet, everlasting earth. The man from Ghana who wheeled our bags was lonesome for his homeland, but commerce made it necessary to carry someone else's burdens. The stars told me how to find us in this disorder of systems.
Washington did not ever sleep that night in the sequence of eternal nights. There were whirring calculators, computers stealing names, while spirits of the disappeared drank coffee at an all-night café in this city of disturbed relativity.
Justice is a story by heart in the beloved country where imagination weeps. The sacred mountains only appear to be asleep. When we finally found the room in the hall of mirrors and shut the door I could no longer bear the beauty of scarlet licked with yellow on the wings of blackbirds.
This is the world in which we undressed together. Within it white deer intersect with the wisdom of the hunter of grace. Horses wheel toward the morning star. Memory was always more than paper and cannot be broken by violent history or stolen by thieves of childhood. We cannot be separated in the loop of mystery between blackbirds and the memory of blackbirds.
And in the predawn when we had slept for centuries in a drenching sweet rain you touched me and the springs of clear water beneath my skin were new knowledge. And I loved you in this city of death.
Through the darkness in the sheer rise of clipped green grass and asphalt our ancestors appear together at the shoreline of the Potomac in their moccasins and pressed suits of discreet armor. They go to the water from the cars of smokey trains, or dismount from horses dusty with fatigue.
See the children who become our grandparents, the old women whose bones fertilized the corn. They form us in our sleep of exhaustion as we make our way through this world of skewed justice, of songs without singers.
I embrace these spirits of relatives who always return to the place of beauty, whatever the outcome in the spiral of power. And I particularly admire the tender construction of your spine which in the gentle dawning is a ladder between the deep in which stars are perfectly stars, and the heavens
where we converse with eagles.
And I am thankful to the brutal city for the space which outlines your limber beauty. To the man from Ghana who also loves the poetry of the stars. To the ancestors who do not forget us in the concrete and paper illusion. To the blackbirds who are exactly blackbirds. And to you sweetheart as we make our incredible journey.
The hours we counted precious were blackbirds in the density of Washington. Taxis toured the labyrinth with passengers of mist as the myth of ancient love took the shape of two figures carrying the dawn tenderly on their shoulders to the shores of the Potomac.
We fled the drama of lit marble in the capitol for a refuge held up by sweet, everlasting earth. The man from Ghana who wheeled our bags was lonesome for his homeland, but commerce made it necessary to carry someone else's burdens. The stars told me how to find us in this disorder of systems.
Washington did not ever sleep that night in the sequence of eternal nights. There were whirring calculators, computers stealing names, while spirits of the disappeared drank coffee at an all-night café in this city of disturbed relativity.
Justice is a story by heart in the beloved country where imagination weeps. The sacred mountains only appear to be asleep. When we finally found the room in the hall of mirrors and shut the door I could no longer bear the beauty of scarlet licked with yellow on the wings of blackbirds.
This is the world in which we undressed together. Within it white deer intersect with the wisdom of the hunter of grace. Horses wheel toward the morning star. Memory was always more than paper and cannot be broken by violent history or stolen by thieves of childhood. We cannot be separated in the loop of mystery between blackbirds and the memory of blackbirds.
And in the predawn when we had slept for centuries in a drenching sweet rain you touched me and the springs of clear water beneath my skin were new knowledge. And I loved you in this city of death.
Through the darkness in the sheer rise of clipped green grass and asphalt our ancestors appear together at the shoreline of the Potomac in their moccasins and pressed suits of discreet armor. They go to the water from the cars of smokey trains, or dismount from horses dusty with fatigue.
See the children who become our grandparents, the old women whose bones fertilized the corn. They form us in our sleep of exhaustion as we make our way through this world of skewed justice, of songs without singers.
I embrace these spirits of relatives who always return to the place of beauty, whatever the outcome in the spiral of power. And I particularly admire the tender construction of your spine which in the gentle dawning is a ladder between the deep in which stars are perfectly stars, and the heavens
where we converse with eagles.
And I am thankful to the brutal city for the space which outlines your limber beauty. To the man from Ghana who also loves the poetry of the stars. To the ancestors who do not forget us in the concrete and paper illusion. To the blackbirds who are exactly blackbirds. And to you sweetheart as we make our incredible journey.
February 10, 2025
"Myth was as real as a scalp being scraped for lice."
What a fantastic line! It's from the title poem, which is the best of the poems collected here - all of them are good, but that one's outstanding. I think I'm going to have to buy a copy of this for myself (I'm currently reading the one held by the university library) just so I can have that one poem on tap to read again whenever I want to.
It's always interesting reading work from authors who come from cultures that are so different from my own. Harjo is from the Muscogee Nation, and I'm certain that many of the mythological references here have gone over my head. The beauty of the imagery, however, remains, and it's folded into narratives about everyday life - although as I type that, I'm aware that for many there's probably no difference between the mythic and the everyday. For me there is, generally, although I'm in the middle of reading a book on island biogeography which talks about the construction of a myth around Darwin and his finches - a story which I've always held as true - so perhaps, in some strange convoluted way, there's a point of similarity after all.
What a fantastic line! It's from the title poem, which is the best of the poems collected here - all of them are good, but that one's outstanding. I think I'm going to have to buy a copy of this for myself (I'm currently reading the one held by the university library) just so I can have that one poem on tap to read again whenever I want to.
It's always interesting reading work from authors who come from cultures that are so different from my own. Harjo is from the Muscogee Nation, and I'm certain that many of the mythological references here have gone over my head. The beauty of the imagery, however, remains, and it's folded into narratives about everyday life - although as I type that, I'm aware that for many there's probably no difference between the mythic and the everyday. For me there is, generally, although I'm in the middle of reading a book on island biogeography which talks about the construction of a myth around Darwin and his finches - a story which I've always held as true - so perhaps, in some strange convoluted way, there's a point of similarity after all.
July 6, 2022
This is a wonderful collection of Joy Harjo's poetry and prose poetry. The words/language she uses is so fresh and creative that they are a feast to read. I also love the references to the souls found in nature such as in the stars, the rivers, the stones, the animals etc. In one of her poems she talks about being on an airplane during a storm but she could hear the thunder clouds telling her that she and the other passengers would be safe. I would so love to hear the clouds and other natural things talking to me as she does.
These poems also include notes from the author about some of the things that were happening that inspired the piece and I found that enlightening, often sending me back to read the poem again.
This collection of poetry is perfect for summer days when you want to enjoy beautiful words as slowly as you drink a glass of wine.
These poems also include notes from the author about some of the things that were happening that inspired the piece and I found that enlightening, often sending me back to read the poem again.
This collection of poetry is perfect for summer days when you want to enjoy beautiful words as slowly as you drink a glass of wine.
May 26, 2021
Challenges: Book-A-Day in May 2021 (31/31); National Poetry Month (April 2021, belated) - US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. I celebrated reading this poetry collection by listening to the music of Poetic Justice with Joy Harjo narrative singing many of the poems found here. Poems are arranged as a duology of tribal memory and the world ending at the kitchen table. Personal and collective tribal experiences are related in themes of the power of words, the lack of love as the break down of relativity, and that spirits continue on in the stars of the Milky Way. On first reading, the two poems that I sat with the most during this day were 'The Song of the House in the House' and 'Letter from the End of the Twentieth Century'.
December 14, 2025
The poetry in this book by one of our nation's former poet laureates is beautiful. Joy Harjo uses imagery from her Muscogee background, from the natural world, and from the stark, often dangerous events of life, in her work. The loss of a dearly loved one, the joy amd hope of a grandchild, the unexplainable murder of a just and innocent person, the life of a butterfly, are concepts we all share. She speaks truths that deeply move with words and phrases that profoundly engage the heart. I appreciate the short inciteful paragraph that follows each selection where you can gain a little more incite into the real event or circumstance that inspired the poem. I had the pleasure of hearing Joy read her work at a local poetry festival shortly before the pandemic shut everything down.
July 4, 2018
Beautiful poems. Some favorite quotes include:
“Keep us from giving up in this land of nightmares which is also the land of miracles.”
“This unnameable thing of beauty is what shapes a flock of birds who know exactly when to turn together in flight in the winds used to make words. Everyone turns together though we may not see each other stacked in the invisible dimensions.”
“Truth can appear as disaster in a land of things I spoke .”
“I am ashamed
I never had the words
to carry a friend from her death
to the stars
correctly.”
“Keep us from giving up in this land of nightmares which is also the land of miracles.”
“This unnameable thing of beauty is what shapes a flock of birds who know exactly when to turn together in flight in the winds used to make words. Everyone turns together though we may not see each other stacked in the invisible dimensions.”
“Truth can appear as disaster in a land of things I spoke .”
“I am ashamed
I never had the words
to carry a friend from her death
to the stars
correctly.”
July 24, 2025
She's just remarkable. Each poem lovingly written unto itself but the brief descriptions at the end of each describing something about their creation add to the power of the poems.
Although I've read a number of her books before, her description of a "down and outer" triggered a thought about the similarity of her style with aspects of Charles Bukowski's work. I thought I was being a bit abstract and maybe culturally insensitive but when I searched "Harjo and Bukowski," sure enough, there's a review of Harjo's work where she cites Bukowski as one of her favorite poets and influences.
Although I've read a number of her books before, her description of a "down and outer" triggered a thought about the similarity of her style with aspects of Charles Bukowski's work. I thought I was being a bit abstract and maybe culturally insensitive but when I searched "Harjo and Bukowski," sure enough, there's a review of Harjo's work where she cites Bukowski as one of her favorite poets and influences.
February 21, 2024
Few can articulate a holistic perspective of life the way Harjo does, this collection is representative of that and her profound ability as a wordsmith. Though the form doesn’t vary much from poem to poem, but the manner in which Harjo can compress complexities and wisdom into a cohesive narrative is what anchors the reading. Some of my favorite verses, worth a read, as anything Joy Harjo writes is.
September 26, 2024
This book was an absolute pleasure to read, filled with words that offer deep healing and reflection. The prose poetry format, which is quickly becoming my favorite, allows the emotions to really hit home. One poem in particular, ‘The Dawn Appears with Butterflies,’ stands out as some of the most beautiful writing I have ever encountered. Joy’s poetry is both powerful and moving. Each poem resonates with strength, grace, and cuts to the core of things leaving a lasting impression.
September 26, 2019
Was not familiar with her until I heard she is the new Poet Laureate so got the only book in the library and she certainly deserves it. Beautiful imagery, love of nature especially the stars and spirituality. I was busy taking deep breathes and saying "Wow" so much of the time.
"We are hated for our differences."
"The dawn as it elopes over the Sangre de Cristos....."
"We are hated for our differences."
"The dawn as it elopes over the Sangre de Cristos....."
October 12, 2023
"Memory was always more than paper and cannot be broken by violent history or stolen by thieves of childhood." I don't always understand poetry or what it is trying to say, but it is easy to appreciate the clever and beautiful use of language and imagery. I especially appreciated the themes of memory and family in this collection.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews