Joy Harjo is a notable poet from the Mvskoke/Creek nation and the first Native American to be awarded the United States Poet Laureate. She has written several poetry books including “An American Sunrise” and “The Woman Who Fell From the Sky.” Harjo attended the University of New Mexico, majoring in Pre-Med. She later changed her major to art to get inspiration from the art around her for writing poetry.
Today, we focus on one of her famous poems called “Remember.”
https://poets.org/poem/remember-0
Throughout the poem, the word “remember” is repeated to remind us of how truly connected we are to earth. The poem opens up in a memory of how we are brought upon this earth. The sun and moon balance each other to bring seasons, love, and stability in our ecosystem. It highlights the different skins of the earth, referring to the different skin tones we have as humans. There is a stronger unity to being different than we would believe. Harjo personifies animals, plants, rocks, and trees with vibrant life. Each living and nonliving thing has a story to tell.
The poem was written as a free verse poem. It emphasizes the importance of recognizing our action’s impacts on those around us and the past ancestors and history that cultivated our lives today. The theme relies on self-identity because readers discover that there are many borders that make us special from others, but the fact that we live on Earth and the way we react to nature is what truly brings us together as family.
In a few of its lines, “Remember” touches on mothers who have a large influence on children. Not only have they suffered to birth their child, they also nurture them and give them love. Mothers make the greatest sacrifice in all of history. We must appreciate the little things they’ve done. Mothers are the ones who help plant the root and help it grow.
In the last couple of lines, dance and language helps us continue to move forward. Harjo stresses that people need to appreciate and respect the natural things of the universe because that can be taken away at a moment’s notice.
