{"id":2757,"date":"2018-09-24T00:00:45","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T04:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=2757"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:45:14","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:45:14","slug":"sept-24-mary-tobacco-joy-harjo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2018\/09\/24\/sept-24-mary-tobacco-joy-harjo\/","title":{"rendered":"Sept 24 — Mary Tobacco & Joy Harjo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, September 24 \u00a0\u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTalking with the Sun\u201d & \u201cThe high plains of Pine Ridge, SD”<\/strong><\/p>\n

This weekend\u2019s early autumn sun & crisp air. \u00a0You can see by the way people walk around campus that breathing is easier these days. \u00a0Lots of smiles for this respite from late summer’s hot damp stretch. \u00a0 For me, today\u2019s morning stillness carries the tastes of the weekend in Detroit with Mary Tobacco, a soul friend of 50 years, who came to savor Detroit: \u00a0tastes of\u00a0energy all over downtown; some great vegetarian food near the Art Museum just off Woodward; \u00a0letting the majestic power of the Detroit River offer us stillness and the company of all sorts of women and men and kids loving the sun; even, on Saturday some improbable whitecaps from autumn winds that ruffled our hair; \u00a0 lots of young people on the new scooters that seem to be taking the country by storm.<\/p>\n

Did we love the massive river more, or Belle Isle\u2019s wedding cake fountain \u2014 now restored to its century old elegance \u2014 dancing in the\u00a0late summer sun, inviting romantic pictures and joy-drenched laughter? \u00a0Mary lives on Pine Ridge, SD c. 300 miles east of the Rocky Mountains. \u00a0The \u201cHigh Plains,\u201d as that land is sometimes called, offers semi-arid, dry spells punctuated with spectacular hail and thunder storms, a land where one can look at the Black Hills, c. 70 miles away to the West and watch thunder storms sweep the prairie. \u00a0Time along the Detroit River and on Belle Isle offered Mary as much astonishing surprise as massive thunder storms on Pine Ridge astonish me. \u00a0 I took this shot on June 19, 2010 about 4 miles from where Mary and her children live on a steep canyon slope.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Highway 18, \u00a0Pine Ridge, SD \u00a0sunset with a storm front<\/p>\n

Mary, a Lakota, \u00a0is a friend of the Creek poet Joy Harjo. \u00a0 They share a love of the land and sky, an intimate understanding of the beauty and the wearing fatigue of poverty so often marked with deep racism but also with the mystical surprises that close family ties offer. \u00a0 This morning, I was listening for a voice I had not heard recently. \u00a0 I found Joy Harjo, soul friend and strong poet. \u00a0Two years ago, she sent me a new book,\u00a0Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings<\/u>. \u00a0 On September 2,\u00a02016, I found my first poem there, \u201cTalking with the Sun.\u201d \u00a0How does a grandmother carry her fourth granddaughter out into the sun on a rainy New York Times Square morning? \u00a0 \u00a0You could read the poem with pauses. \u00a0 Or you may imagine driving along that highway as the sunset shows off a front being pushed East by the storm’s energy.<\/p>\n

Have a blest week,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

P.S. Happy Mercy Day!\u00a0 Mercy Day is the anniversary of the opening of the first \u201cHouse of Mercy\u201d in 1827 in Dublin, Ireland.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019 Post<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0Joy Harjo \u00a0\u201cTalking with the Sun\u201d<\/p>\n

I believe in the sun.
\nIn the tangle of human failures of fear, greed, and
\nforgetfulness, the sun gives me clarity.
\nWhen explorers first encountered my people, they called us
\nheathens, sun worshippers.
\nThey didn\u2019t understand that the sun is a relative, and
\nilluminates our path on this earth.<\/p>\n

After dancing all night in a circle we realize that we are a
\npart of a larger sense of stars and planets dancing with us
\noverhead.
\nWhen the sun rises at the apex of the ceremony, we are
\nrenewed.
\nThere is no mistaking this connection, though Walmart
\nmight be just down the road.
\nHumans are vulnerable and rely on the kindnesses of the
\nearth and sun; we exist together in a sacred field of
\nmeaning.<\/p>\n

Our earth is shifting. \u00a0We can all see it.
\nI hear from my Inuit and Yupik relatives up north that
\neverything has changed. \u00a0It\u2019s so hot; there is not enough
\nwinter.
\nAnimals are confused. Ice is melting.<\/p>\n

The quantum physicists have it right; they are beginning to
\nthink like Indians: everything is connected dynamically
\nat an intimate level.
\nWhen you remember this, then the current wobble of the
\nearth makes sense. \u00a0How much more oil can be drained,
\nWithout replacement; without reciprocity?<\/p>\n

I walked out of a hotel room just off Times Square at dawn
\nto find the sun.
\nIt was the fourth morning since the birth of my fourth
\ngranddaughter.
\nThis was the morning I was to present her to the sun, as a
\nrelative, as one of us. \u00a0It was still dark, overcast as I walked
\nthrough Times Square.
\nI stood beneath a twenty-first century totem pole of symbols
\nof multinational corporations, made of flash and neon.<\/p>\n

The sun rose up over the city but I couldn\u2019t see it amidst the
\nrain.
\nThough I was not at home, bundling up the baby to carry
\nher outside,
\nI carried this newborn girl within the cradleboard of my
\nheart.
\nI held her up and presented her to the sun, so she would be
\nrecognized as a relative,
\nSo that she won\u2019t forget this connection, this promise,
\nSo that we all remember, the sacredness of life.<\/p>\n

Joy Harjo<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mary with two of her children near her home in canyon country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, September 24 \u00a0\u2014 \u201cTalking with the Sun\u201d & \u201cThe high plains of Pine Ridge, SD” This weekend\u2019s early autumn sun & crisp air. \u00a0You can see by the way people walk around campus that breathing is easier these days. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2757"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2760,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2757\/revisions\/2760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}