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The woman who fell from the sky
69 pages
A visionary collection of poetry that sings with the rhythms of jazz, prayer, and the deep spiritual truths of Native American womanhood.
What it feels like
Reading this collection feels like sitting inside a profound, rhythmic ceremony where storytelling, prayer, and song seamlessly intertwine. The pacing is steady and deliberate, guided by the improvisational pulse of jazz and the deep roots of North American tribal traditions. It immerses the reader in a soulful, reverent mood, balancing mythic visions with the grounded realities of American culture since the late 1960s. The language itself acts as a vessel for truth-telling, praising the land and the spirit while fiercely honoring feminine individuality. It is a deeply spiritual experience, perfect for readers who crave poetry that bridges the gap between the ancestral and the contemporary, offering a resonant, visionary exploration of indigenous identity and womanhood.
- Mood
- reverent
- soulful
- reflective
- grounded
- Tone
- visionary
- spiritual
- mythic
- earnest
- truth-telling
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- Native American identity · feminine individuality · connection to the land · spiritual truth · realities of American culture
- The writing
- A lyrical blending of storytelling, prayer, and song, heavily influenced by the rhythms of jazz and tribal traditions.
- The arc
- Moves through a landscape of memory, myth, and cultural reality to arrive at a profound, spiritual truth-telling.
- Who it's for
- Readers seeking visionary poetry that intertwines indigenous heritage, feminism, and spiritual reverence for the natural world.
About the book
Joy Harjo, one of this country's foremost Native American voices, combines elements of storytelling, prayer, and song, informed by her interest in jazz and by her North American tribal background, in this, her fourth volume of poetry. She is a mythic, visionary, and spiritual poet who draws from the Native American tradition of praising the land and the spirit, the realities of American culture, and the concept of feminine individuality.
In describing this volume Harjo has said: "I believe that the word poet is synonymous with the word truth teller. So this collection tells a bit of the truth of what I have seen since my coming of age in the late sixties."
Description from Open Library.
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