I’ve been told that you can’t tell a book by its cover, but this might be an exception. Joy Harjo, in her newest book and second memoir, Poet Warrior, laces her story together in poetry and lyrical prose. In the six segments named Ancestral Roots, Becoming, A Postcolonial Tale, Diamond Light, Teachers, and Sunset, she traces her own growth from her ancestors to her grandchildren. At every juncture, her heritage and her family are vital.
In an interview for Poets and Writers, she gives her description of this story, “There is rhythm and timing, and the best storytellers have rhythm. And rhythmically, I prefer to swing. . .What emerged and surprised me as it surfaced was a long poem that winds through the book, a book which Girl Warrior comes of age and in the coming of age discovers poetry.” In the very beginning, “The Council dressed Girl Warrior’s spirit for the journey to enter the story, to make change. They placed the map in her heart.” Then comes the day when the Girl Warrior is transformed and becomes a woman to be called “Poet Warrior.” Using her own definition, she rates as a “best storyteller.”
Harjo recounts the difficulties of heartache and loss, of being a young single mother, and of a meandering path through music to find her way to poetry. A bit of humor here and there brings a vision I share in her mother’s mother who was better kept away from the cooking fire and her own mother who planted flowers in the traditional cooking pot.
In case there was any doubt, Poet Warrior verifies her selection as Poet Laureate. Her membership in the Muscogee (Creek) Nation gives authenticity to her account of traditions in these ancestors and family and makes the cover an accurate portrayal for what is inside the book. It is a book for those who love a personal story done in lyrical writing.