The Woman Who Fell from the Sky: Poems

Rating:
Summary: Making the connection with Harjo's poetry.
Review: "I have a question for my soul," Joy Harjo writes in this book, "a creature who has little patience with crows--and less with snow. The question grows new leaves with each hard rain yet bends with grief at loss in the cold" (p. 26) After first reading this amazing book of poetry in 1996, I've returned to it many times. Something new is revealed with each reading, and along the way, Harjo has become one of my favorite contemporary poets.

Harjo writes that she is a poet "charged with speaking the truth about "the landscape of the late twentieth century" (p. 19). Written from a Native American, feminine perspective, her poetry here is filled with images of earth, sky, stars, bones, blood, rain (the "earth is wet with happiness," p. 12), and lightning ("A blue horse turns into a streak of lightning, then the sun," p. 48). In each poem, Harjo asks her reader the question: "do you see the connection?" (p. 51). At least for me, Harjo's connections are rarely obvious, but the poetic experience offered by her verse is always powerful. "It's possible," Harjo observes, "to understand the world from studying a leaf . . . It's also possible to travel the whole globe and learn nothing" (p. 57).

In her poem, "Witness," she connects walking the streets of Lucca, Italy with "driving the back roads around Albuquerque, the radio on country and a six-pack" (p. 42).

I recommend the breathtaking experience of making the connection with Harjo's poetry.

G. Merritt

Rating:
Summary: Making the connection with Harjo's poetry.
Review: "I have a question for my soul," Joy Harjo writes in this book, "a creature who has little patience with crows--and less with snow. The question grows new leaves with each hard rain yet bends with grief at loss in the cold" (p. 26) After first reading this amazing book of poetry in 1996, I've returned to it many times. Something new is revealed with each reading, and along the way, Harjo has become one of my favorite contemporary poets.

Harjo writes that she is a poet "charged with speaking the truth about "the landscape of the late twentieth century" (p. 19). Written from a Native American, feminine perspective, her poetry here is filled with images of earth, sky, stars, bones, blood, rain (the "earth is wet with happiness," p. 12), and lightning ("A blue horse turns into a streak of lightning, then the sun," p. 48). In each poem, Harjo asks her reader the question: "do you see the connection?" (p. 51). At least for me, Harjo's connections are rarely obvious, but the poetic experience offered by her verse is always powerful. "It's possible," Harjo observes, "to understand the world from studying a leaf . . . It's also possible to travel the whole globe and learn nothing" (p. 57).

In her poem, "Witness," she connects walking the streets of Lucca, Italy with "driving the back roads around Albuquerque, the radio on country and a six-pack" (p. 42).

I recommend the breathtaking experience of making the connection with Harjo's poetry.

G. Merritt

Rating:
Summary: Making the connection with Harjo's poetry.
Review: "I have a question for my soul," Joy Harjo writes in this book, "a creature who has little patience with crows--and less with snow. The question grows new leaves with each hard rain yet bends with grief at loss in the cold" (p. 26) After first reading this amazing book of poetry in 1996, I've returned to it many times. Something new is revealed with each reading, and along the way, Harjo has become one of my favorite contemporary poets.

Harjo writes that she is a poet "charged with speaking the truth about "the landscape of the late twentieth century" (p. 19). Written from a Native American, feminine perspective, her poetry here is filled with images of earth, sky, stars, bones, blood, rain (the "earth is wet with happiness," p. 12), and lightning ("A blue horse turns into a streak of lightning, then the sun," p. 48). In each poem, Harjo asks her reader the question: "do you see the connection?" (p. 51). At least for me, Harjo's connections are rarely obvious, but the poetic experience offered by her verse is always powerful. "It's possible," Harjo observes, "to understand the world from studying a leaf . . . It's also possible to travel the whole globe and learn nothing" (p. 57).

In her poem, "Witness," she connects walking the streets of Lucca, Italy with "driving the back roads around Albuquerque, the radio on country and a six-pack" (p. 42).

I recommend the breathtaking experience of making the connection with Harjo's poetry.

G. Merritt

Rating:
Summary: Lyrical, Moving, Entrancing
Review: I must admit that I usually have a hard time reading poetry (a serious problem for a literature major!), but Joy Harjo's THE WOMAN WHO FELL FROM THE SKY is simply the most moving and eloquent group of poems I have ever read. From beginning to end, I was awed by Harjo's skillful use of language to convey not only impressions and emotions, but levels and varieties of meanings. I was especially moved by the title poem, which recounts a timeless love story -- these characters could be out of myth or they could be your neighbors, but either way the story is lyrical and passionate, the events flowing like eddies in a stream toward a natural conclusion. Most of the poems in the volume have this same motion -- of fated adventures that make one serenely happy that things turn out as they should. For lovers of poetry, stars, water and people, this is one volume of poetry that cannot be passed over

Rating:
Summary: Poet as truth-teller
Review: In this book, Harjo herself identifies poet with truth-teller; truth-teller is an accurate description of her work, especially in this volume. This volume contains several of the more political pieces on her album (with Poetic Justice) - the boarding schools, the unkept promises, the discrimination. Several of the piece blur the line between poetry and prose but read aloud a clearly poetry.

To read this poetry is to receive a gift, a grace of seeing another way to view the world - one in which the tree, the butterfly, the water speak and are connected to oneself. She clearly speaks from experience, from truth - not as some who tell such stories of connected for personal gain but as one to whom this telling describes her world. But in connectedness she shows the tears - the alcohol, 'Nam, enforced 'white culture' - the rips in the Native cultures that must be healed for the people to survive.

Excellent poetry - deep in meaning, superb in handling of language and image.

Rating:
Summary: Poet as truth-teller
Review: In this book, Harjo herself identifies poet with truth-teller; truth-teller is an accurate description of her work, especially in this volume. This volume contains several of the more political pieces on her album (with Poetic Justice) - the boarding schools, the unkept promises, the discrimination. Several of the piece blur the line between poetry and prose but read aloud a clearly poetry.

To read this poetry is to receive a gift, a grace of seeing another way to view the world - one in which the tree, the butterfly, the water speak and are connected to oneself. She clearly speaks from experience, from truth - not as some who tell such stories of connected for personal gain but as one to whom this telling describes her world. But in connectedness she shows the tears - the alcohol, 'Nam, enforced 'white culture' - the rips in the Native cultures that must be healed for the people to survive.

Excellent poetry - deep in meaning, superb in handling of language and image.

Rating:
Summary: Magical Reality in an Industrial World
Review: Joy Harjo's "Woman Who Fell From the Sky" encompasses many aspects of modern Native American life and, although it reflects a strong sense of her own cultural heritage, is not overtly political. In many of her poems she incorporates her religious tradition into modern contexts, effortlessly merging magical or mythical reality with the modern industrial experience. As she states in "The Place the Musician Became a Bear" (51-53), "It's about rearranging the song to include the subway hiss under your feet in Brooklyn."

Harjo's writes in long poems, about one-and-a-half pages long, and uses complete sentences. Her style resembles prose only in form, however, for each sentence is dense with meaning and rewards close perusal. She chooses each word with care, working and re-working each sentence for maximum effect. Her sentences are so compressed, in fact, that a casual reader might fail to comprehend the full meaning of her work. Explanatory notes at the end of each poem are invaluable to understanding the meaning and context of her poetry.

"The Woman Who Fell From the Stars" is a finely-written and inspiring book. The author's unique writing style rewards careful reading and re-reading, and, while she chooses heavy themes, she deals with them positively -- weaving pain, human cruelty, joy and love into a tapestry of life which is beautiful and understandable.

Rating:
Summary: Magical Reality in an Industrial World
Review: Joy Harjo's "Woman Who Fell From the Sky" encompasses many aspects of modern Native American life and, although it reflects a strong sense of her own cultural heritage, is not overtly political. In many of her poems she incorporates her religious tradition into modern contexts, effortlessly merging magical or mythical reality with the modern industrial experience. As she states in "The Place the Musician Became a Bear" (51-53), "It's about rearranging the song to include the subway hiss under your feet in Brooklyn."

Harjo's writes in long poems, about one-and-a-half pages long, and uses complete sentences. Her style resembles prose only in form, however, for each sentence is dense with meaning and rewards close perusal. She chooses each word with care, working and re-working each sentence for maximum effect. Her sentences are so compressed, in fact, that a casual reader might fail to comprehend the full meaning of her work. Explanatory notes at the end of each poem are invaluable to understanding the meaning and context of her poetry.

"The Woman Who Fell From the Stars" is a finely-written and inspiring book. The author's unique writing style rewards careful reading and re-reading, and, while she chooses heavy themes, she deals with them positively -- weaving pain, human cruelty, joy and love into a tapestry of life which is beautiful and understandable.