{"id":3039,"date":"2019-08-12T00:00:51","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T04:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=3039"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:43:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:43:00","slug":"august-12-u-s-poet-laureate-which-joy-harjo-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2019\/08\/12\/august-12-u-s-poet-laureate-which-joy-harjo-poem\/","title":{"rendered":"August 12 – U.S Poet Laureate – “Which Joy Harjo poem”?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday August 12 –\u00a0\u201cwhich Joy Harjo poem\u201d?<\/p>\n

There are so many possible answers to this question. \u00a0 Our campus is not yet used to all the rhythms of a fresh work year; we are still a little rusty about that word \u201cordinary\u201d \u00a0(i.e., office hours and their attendant meetings, an urgency to emails and walks across campus, new surprises found hiding in our calendars that stir a scattering of nano panics: \u00a0\u201cYikes! is that due\u00a0this week?<\/strong>\u00a0 Where did summer\u2019s leisure go?\u201d \u00a0 So a whole community of women and men start a year. \u00a0 The \u201cWork Day in a Hard Time\u201d Poetry List comes alive too.)<\/p>\n

One deep soul friend and companion over decades, Joy Harjo, as a resonant go-to poet, has gotten more complex. \u00a0\u201cNational Poet Laureate\u201d opens her name-search in all sorts of directions. \u00a0The on-line publication \u201cPoetry\u201d offers a cluster of Joy\u2019s\u00a0work from across years of paying attention: ( \u201cJoy Harjo, Newly-Appointed U.S. Poet Laureate, Reads Her Poems, \u00a0\u2018Remember,\u2019 \u2018A Poem to Get Rid of fear,\u2019 \u2018An American Sunrise\u2019 and More.\u201d) \u00a0 For this early August day, I chose \u201cGrace.\u201d \u00a0Readers of this list should not be surprised. \u00a0I love \u201cGrace;\u201d so specific and close to the ground, alive with subtle memories, harsh and tender both.<\/p>\n

Best to read the poem out loud, with pauses.<\/p>\n

Have a blessed work week here in mid-August.<\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post: \u00a0\u00a0\u201cGrace\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>(last posted\u00a0March 22, 2019)<\/p>\n

I think of Wind and her wild ways the year we had nothing to lose and lost it anyway<\/p>\n

in the cursed country of the fox. We still talk about that winter, how the cold froze
\nimaginary buffalo on the stuffed horizon of snowbanks.<\/p>\n

The haunting voices of the starved and mutilated broke fences, crashed our thermostat
\ndreams, and we couldn\u2019t stand it one more time.<\/p>\n

So once again we lost a winter in stubborn memory, walked through cheap apartment
\nwalls, skated through fields of ghosts into a town that never wanted us,
\nin the epic search for grace.<\/p>\n

Like Coyote, like Rabbit, we could not contain our terror and clowned our way through a
\nseason of false midnights.<\/p>\n

We had to swallow that town with laughter, so it would go down easy as honey.<\/p>\n

And one morning as the sun struggled to break ice, and our dreams had found us with
\ncoffee and pancakes in a truck stop along Highway 80, we found grace.<\/p>\n

I could say grace was a woman with time on her hands, or a white buffalo escaped from<\/p>\n

memory. But in that dingy light it was a promise of balance.<\/p>\n

We once again understood the talk of animals, and spring was lean and hungry with the
\nhope of children and corn.<\/p>\n

I would like to say, with grace, we picked ourselves up and walked into the spring thaw.<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t; the next season was worse.<\/p>\n

You went home to Leech Lake to work with the tribe and I went south.<\/p>\n

And, Wind, I am still crazy.<\/p>\n

I know there is something larger than the memory of a dispossessed people. We have seen it.<\/p>\n

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

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

Joy Harjo 2012.
\n(b. May 9, 1951)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday August 12 –\u00a0\u201cwhich Joy Harjo poem\u201d? There are so many possible answers to this question. \u00a0 Our campus is not yet used to all the rhythms of a fresh work year; we are still a little rusty about that … 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\/3039"}],"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=3039"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3041,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3039\/revisions\/3041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}