Critical Response: she had some horses by Joy Harjo

James Galvan
English 306
Steve Pett

Critical Response: she had some horses by Joy Harjo

She had some horses by Joy Harjo is an excellent example of a women trying to explain her identity through writing poetry. Harjo is a Native American and through the writings of her poetry it seems that she is trying to explain the struggles she is experiences for being a Native American in what is now the present culture of America. As Harjo writes her poems, she wanted to make it clear through the use of specifically chosen words that she was as close to her native identity as she possibly could. Harjo would choose words that can easily be identified with as Native American culture. Some of the words you will see through out most of Harjos poems include blood, dream, horses, moon, rain and anything that has to do with the earth and nature. In addition, story telling through Harjos poems seems to be a way she can keep her culture alive and remembered because this land was once owned by her heritage but can now easily be forgotten if not reminded by it in some way or another.
When looking at Harjos poems, all of them in some way can bring up thoughts of Native American culture and all her poems will give you the sense of how close she is with her Native American heritage. Harjos poems all seem to have a theme about memory and tradition and there are some poems of hers which can show this theme much more clear then any of her other writings.
One of these poems is the one titled “One Cedar Tree” (p. 16). In this poem, Harjo writes a lot about nature and there are a lot of lines which can clearly represent how she can be indentified more as a Native American who wants to be very close to her own past culture instead of the present day. These lines in this poem which can represent her identity are “to sacred blue sky / Only the prayers I send up on cedar smoke, _ on sage. / And I eat, breathe, and pray to some strange god _ who could be a cedar tree _ outside the window.”. Harjo also uses a lot of words that make it easier to bring up thoughts and memory of Native Americans such as prayers, sacred, moon, sun, sage and land. Also this poem has a story telling quality about praying to a cedar tree as if it were some sort of spirit which can be seen as something of Native American tradition.
Another poem which can show Harjo trying to identify with her heritage is the poem is “Remember” (p.35). This poem symbolically tries to make you think about the Native American culture and through repetition tries to unstill it into your memory so you will never forget. Some of these lines in this poem that clearly can make one think about Native American culture are “Remember the sky that you were born under, _ know each of the star’s stories. / Remember the moon, know who she is. / Remember the earth whose skin you are: red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth _ brown earth, we are earth. / Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the _ origin of this universe.”. In addition, this poem not only emphasizes on the fact that Native American culture should be remembered but it also wants you to remember how you got here and why you are here.
When looking at all of Harjos poems, one that can stand out in which she uses a lot of words that can be associated with Native American culture is the poem “She Had Some Horses” (p. 61). In this poem, Harjo constantly uses the word horse which is a very symbolic figure in Native American culture. Other words through out this poem that can be associated with the culture include blood, water, air, sky, clay, stars, moon, spirit and prayed. After reading these words one could easily group them together as something from nature which is what Native American culture and tradition is about.
As you can see, Harjo really shows that she has a strong identity with Native American culture through her writings. Through the use of Harjos imageries and similes, she really could connect herself and the reader to a more cultural perspective of Native American culture and it was the way she wrote, for example the use of repetition in the some of her poems such as “Cuchillo” (p. 22) and “She Had Some Horses” (p. 61) that could really instill in the memory not to forget about Native American culture.