Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years

Harjo’s patient guidance, mastery of form, and emotional depth are on dazzling display in these 50 poems drawing from 50 years of her poetry career. Her sensitivity toward the human experience is everywhere evident, especially in “Bird” (for jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker), in which she writes, “I’ve always had a theory that some of us/ are born with nerve endings longer than our bodies,” arriving at an indelible insight: “All poets/ understand the final uselessness of words. We are chords to/ other chords to other chords, if we’re lucky, to melody.” She revisits this idea in “Creation Story,” remarking, “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.” “Eagle Poem” captures Harjo’s interest in the natural world and cycles, opening, “To pray you open your whole self/ To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon/ To one whole voice that is you.” Harjo connects the human family, and the earthly and spiritual realms, in poems that sparkle with generosity and brilliance. (Nov.)