Selected Poems of Joy Harjo - Music Center
Selected Poems of Joy Harjo - Music Center
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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