Poems and images and songs

The blessing of  earth

God, every night is hard.

Always there are some awake,

who turn, turn, and do not find you.

Don’t you hear them crying out

as they go farther and farther down?

Surely you hear them weep; for they are weeping.

I seek you, because they are passing

right by my door. 

Whom should I turn to,

if not the one whose darkness

is darker than night, the only one

who keeps vigil with no candle,

and is not afraid—

the deep one, whose being I trust,

for it breaks through the earth into trees

and rises,

when I bow my head,

faint as a fragrance

from the soil.

-Rainer Maria Rilke, From The Book of Hours II, 3

SENDING YOU LIGHT by Melanie DeMore performed with Julie Wolf

• 
  Remember  by Joy Harjo
  
  
  Remember the sky that you were born under,
  
  know each of the star’s stories.
  
  Remember the moon, know who she is.
  
  Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the
  
  strongest point of time. Remember sundown
  
  and the giving away to night.
  
  Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
  
  to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
  
  her life, and her mother’s, and hers.
  
  Remember your father. He is your life, also.
  
  Remember the earth whose skin you are:
  
  red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
  
  brown earth, we are earth.
  
  Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
  
  tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
  
  listen to them. They are alive poems.
  
  Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
  
  origin of this universe.
  
  Remember you are all people and all people
  
  are you.
  
  Remember you are this universe and this
  
  universe is you.
  
  Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
  
  Remember language comes from this.
  
  Remember the dance language is, that life is.

Joy Harjo is a poet and musician, and a member of the Mvskoke Nation. She has published seven books of poetry, including: How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems, The Woman Who Fell from the Sky, and She Had Some Horses. Among Joy’s honors and recognitions are the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Joy now resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico