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Selected Poems of Joy Harjo - Music Center

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Remember by <strong>Joy</strong> <strong>Harjo</strong><br />

Remember the sky you were born under,<br />

know each <strong>of</strong> the star’s stories.<br />

Remember the moon, know who she is.<br />

Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the<br />

strongest point <strong>of</strong> time. Remember sundown<br />

and the giving way to night.<br />

Remember your birth, how you mother struggled<br />

To give you form and breath. You are evidence <strong>of</strong><br />

her life, and her mother’s, and hers.<br />

Remember your father. He is your life, also.<br />

Remember the earth whose skin you are:<br />

red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth<br />

brown earth, we are earth.<br />

Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their<br />

tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,<br />

listen to them. They are alive poems.<br />

Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the<br />

origin <strong>of</strong> this universe.<br />

Remember you are all people and all people<br />

are you.<br />

Remember you are this universe and this<br />

universe is you.<br />

Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.<br />

Remember language comes from this.<br />

Remember the dance language is that life is.<br />

Remember.<br />

2011 Anchor Work Poem<br />

<strong>Selected</strong> <strong>Poems</strong><br />

How We Became Human: New and <strong>Selected</strong> <strong>Poems</strong> / <strong>Joy</strong> <strong>Harjo</strong>. New York : W.W. Norton & Co., ©2002<br />

<strong>Music</strong> <strong>Center</strong> Anchor Work Model Curriculum Unit: <strong>Selected</strong> <strong>Poems</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Joy</strong> <strong>Harjo</strong>.<br />

©2011 <strong>Music</strong> <strong>Center</strong>: Performing Arts <strong>Center</strong> <strong>of</strong> Los Angeles County. All Rights Reserved.<br />

Naming by <strong>Joy</strong> <strong>Harjo</strong><br />

I call my sisters to dress for the stomp dance<br />

As all the little creatures hum and sing<br />

in the thick grass around the grounds.<br />

Lightning bugs are tiny stars<br />

dancing in the river <strong>of</strong> dusk.<br />

Our stomachs are full <strong>of</strong> meat and fry bread<br />

and the talk <strong>of</strong> aunts and uncles.<br />

Beautiful fire at the center <strong>of</strong> the dance<br />

and the dusk has been lit.<br />

We lace up our turtle shells so we<br />

can dance into the circle.<br />

And in this spirit world is the grocery<br />

store over the hill, and all the houses,<br />

the river, the sky, and the highway.<br />

We have been here forever<br />

say our mother, our father.<br />

And this is the name we call ourselves<br />

I tell my sisters,<br />

this name that gives our legs the music<br />

to shake the shells--<br />

a name that is unspeakable<br />

by those who disrespect us<br />

--a name with power to thread us through<br />

the dark to dawn<br />

and leads us faithfully to the stars.<br />

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