A Map to the Next World: Poems

Rating:
Summary: More personal (individual) less universal
Review: I am fond of all Harjo's works - printed or recorded; I was surprised, then, when this volume left me less satisfied than usual with her work. Her writings have moved from poetry to poetry and prose poems to this book subtitled poems and tales - some of the tales are more essay than tale. Looking specifically at the essays, I realized why I was less satisfied with this book: her work is more personal, more self revealing in a way which makes it less universal. But one of the real strengths in much of her writting is that she writes of the particular - her Native American cultural background - in a way that makes it ring as true experience, as universal truth.

Once I recognized this shift and read A Map to the Next World with a mind set closer to how I would read confessional poetry, I began to appreciate some of the pieces I first considered weaker in a more favorable light - for example, the design of light and dark - an essay on snap judgment based on hue of skin. The piece Returning from the Enemy is a very strong autobiographical piece alternating prose and poetry - the former being individual and personal, the latter being more universal. The alternation of the two build upon each other as fact and truth ... an thus built a splendid foundation for understanding both the truth of Joy Harjo's life as well as truth of all our lives.

Her poetry has strong and wonderful images - from Songs from the House of Death, Or How to Make It Through to the End of a Relationship comes "I run my tongue over the skeleton / jutting from my jaw. I taste / the grit of heartbreak".

As usual, Joy Harjo is a master worth reading; this book simply requires a slight adjustment in effort of understanding.

Rating:
Summary: A review from a New York reader
Review: In A Map to the Next World Joy Harjo offers a powerful insight into her culture, rooted in profound spirituality. At the same time her words demolish the artificial boundaries between many worlds - physical, religious and cultural - mapping dynamic interchanges in a universal dimension. In a similar manner, her poems interact with the prose pieces that follow. Such a format gives the reader an opportunity to listen to the poet's own comments, the lucid and fluid process of her thoughts, the experience from which the poem was written. The poetic voice and the autobiographical "I" thus become the poet and the storyteller who interact with each other, adding a new layer to the poem - that of a spoken word, in her best native tradition. A Map to the Next World has the lyrical, visionary fire and original poetic technique of the previous books by Harjo. However, this new collection opens up a larger picture of her world: it articulates "the intricate context of history and family" (p.31), in which destruction and redemption lead to "the very act of our beautiful survival" (p.51). Once again, Joy Harjo is bearing witness of her journey toward acceptance, wisdom and wholeness, in an outstanding poetic form.

Rating:
Summary: Get out the map
Review: What an incredible collection! This collection of poems and autobiographical stories is full of politics, poignant observations, philosophies, all to an indigenous beat, and all bearing witness to the madness of our world. And especially to the atrocities done in this world, past and present. By letting us see through her eyes, Harjo makes the politics personal, and brings the novice reader into her fiery views, making us feel and see in different ways. I was most affected by the prose stories between the poems. And judging by the other reviews, this isn't even Harjo's best work overall!