{"id":3478,"date":"2020-05-11T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T04:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/?p=3478"},"modified":"2020-05-11T14:25:51","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T18:25:51","slug":"may-11-mary-tobacco-joy-harjo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2020\/05\/11\/may-11-mary-tobacco-joy-harjo\/","title":{"rendered":"May 11 – Mary Tobacco & Joy Harjo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, May 11 \u00a0\u2014
\n<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cTalking with the Sun\u201d & \u201cThe high plains of Pine Ridge, SD\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

This week begins with late spring sun & its crisp wind gusts. \u00a0 For me, today\u2019s morning stillness stirs memories of two great native women, soul friends both. Last Saturday was Poet Laureate Joy Harjo\u2019s birthday. \u00a0Yesterday,\u00a0Mary Tobacco and I talked about her children helping her set in the new garden after early plowing.<\/p>\n

Mary, a Lakota tribal leader on Pine Ridge, and Creek poet Joy Harjo are soul friends. \u00a0 They share a love of land and sky, an intimate understanding of the beauty and\u00a0fatigue of poverty often marked with racism but also with the deep harmonics both women can hear as they live more and more closely with earth and sky. \u00a0Yesterday Mary told me playful stories about the way her children honored her on Mothers\u2019 Day, \u00a0(i.e., cleaning the trailer house and helping with the next steps in building a new one-acre garden with its rich promise of vegetables for the summer season).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Anya at the new garden\u2019s edge \u00a0May 9, 2020<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Mom and the kids, \u00a0re-posted for Mother\u2019s Day, 2020<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Joy Harjo <\/strong>\u00a0\u201cTalking with the Sun\u201d \u00a0 (in \u00a0Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings)<\/u>.<\/p>\n

For her birthday, I returned to Joy Harjo\u2019s \u201cTalking with the Sun.\u201d\u00a0 How does a grandmother carry her fourth granddaughter out into the sun on a rainy New York Times Square morning?\u00a0 You could read the poem with pauses. \u00a0 Or you may imagine driving along SD highway 18 as the sunset shows off a front being pushed East by a storm\u2019s energy.<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

 <\/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

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nJoy Harjo: Poet Laureate \u00a0June 19, 2019
\nBorn\u200e: \u200eMay 9, 1951 (age 68); \u200eTulsa, Oklahoma<\/a>\u200e<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Highway 18, c. 3.9 miles from Mary Tobacco\u2019s home<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, May 11 \u00a0\u2014 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cTalking with the Sun\u201d & \u201cThe high plains of Pine Ridge, SD\u201d This week begins with late spring sun & its crisp wind gusts. \u00a0 For me, today\u2019s morning stillness stirs memories of two great … 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\/3478"}],"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=3478"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3483,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3478\/revisions\/3483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}