For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet

“In Mystic” by Joy Harjo (2015)

In this poem, the speaker encounters the town of Mystic, once settled by pilgrims. They explore their place in the town. The settlers slaughtered 600 Native American individuals and built a church over their graveyard. The speaker says they knows it is their job to write about this history, that “[e]very poem is an effort at ceremony” (Line 35). At the end of the poem the speaker asks for a way “in” (Line 36). The speaker explains the history that Harjo has inherited and elaborates on the negative feelings that they and some readers may be carrying in their bodies, minds, and hearts.

“Once the World Was Perfect” by Joy Harjo (2015)

This is another poem from Harjo’s collection, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings. The speaker tells a mythical story about how people started as perfect beings and then devolved as they experienced doubt, jealousy, and the “stone[s]” (Lines 10, 12) of other negative emotions. One person offered another a blanket, and thus began the climb out of the imperfect world. Like “For Calling the Spirit Back…,” this poem offers a message of hope and encouragement; we can find redemption by helping one another through the dark.