Fifty selected poems by the author on the fiftieth anniversary of her first publication are accompanied by her notes on the inspiration and origin of each one. Fifty lyrics of love, heartbreak, despair, grief, anger, and protest against the treatment of women, especially indigenous females and the loss of ancient homelands to European settlers.

Harjo, a member of the Muscogee Nation (Este Mvskokvlke) served as the United States Poet Laureate from 2019 to 2022. She is also a musician and an author of both fiction and nonfiction works. ( )

This collection is fabulous. Heartbreaking, beautiful, simply amazing. ( )

I'm just starting to delve into Joy Harjo, and I found this collection of 50 poems to be a good place to begin.

This collection deals with a spectrum of topics, and I enjoyed the variety. What particularly interests me about this collection is the notes that the poet has written as a short background to each poem. This level of explanation was satisfying to my inner nerd, and I enjoyed the details immensely.

"We will be accompanied by ancient songs
And will celebrate together"
from Prepare

There are many treasures in this collection for a poetry lover.

*I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review." ( )

All poets understand the final uselessness of words.

from Bird by Jo Harjo
After I read Jo Harjo’s poem The Woman Hanging From the Thirteenth-Floor Window I could not get that image out of my head. A woman, all women, clinging with their fingers, hanging from a window, thinking “of all the women she has been, of all the men,” of the loneliness, and yet not alone, seeing all the other women hanging, either falling or climbing back in.

It’s shattering.

As a Native American woman, Harjo’s poems reflect the brutal reality of history. Washing My Mother’s Body, a poem so tender, so nostalgic, shares a history of a woman’s strength and struggle against the legacy of the “iron pot given to her by her Cherokee mother, whose mother gave it to her, given to her by the U.S. government on the Trail of Tears. “The story is all there, in her body,” and she remembers while she imagines washing her mother’s body because she could not in real life.

Harjo speaks truths with directness, fearlessly.

I’m not afraid of love
or its consequence of light.

It’s not easy to say this
or anything when my entrails
dangle between paradise
and fear.

I am ashamed
I never had the words
to carry a friend from her death
to the stars
correctly.

Or the words to keep
my people safe
from drought
or gunshot.

The stars who were created by words
are circling over this house
formed of calcium, of blood

this house
in danger of being torn apart
by stones of fear.

If these words can do anything
if these songs can do anything
I say bless this house
with stars.

Transfix us with love.

from The Creation Story by Jo Harjo
These poems seized me with their power.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased. ( )