This is My Heart
This is my heart. It is a good heart.
Bones and a membrane of mist and fire
are the woven cover.
When we make love in the flower world
my heart is close enough to sing
to yours in a language that has no use
for clumsy human words.

My head is a good head, but it is a hard head
and it whirs inside with a swarm of worries.
What is the source of this singing, it asks
and if there is a source why can't I see it
right here, right now
as real as these hands hammering
the world together
with nails and sinew?

This is my soul. It is a good soul.
It tells me, "come here forgetful one."
And we sit together with a lilt of small winds
who rattle the scrub oak.
We cook a little something
to eat: a rabbit, some sofkey
then a sip of something sweet
for memory.

This is my song. It is a good song.
It walked forever the border of fire and water
climbed ribs of desire to my lips to sing to you.
Its new wings quiver with
vulnerability.

Come lie next to me, says my heart.
Put your head here.
It is a good thing, says my soul.

~ Joy Harjo ~

(A Map to the Next World)

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https://www.joyharjo.com/Home.html

The talented Native American, Joy Harjo, came from a family of Muscogee painters which she herself planned on becoming. Harjo is not a full-blood Native American and she did not live on the reservation. However, she is a full member of the Muscogee tribe. At the age of sixteen, she moved to the Southwest to attend the Institute of American Indian Arts. Switching her major from art to poetry, Harjo graduated from the University of New Mexico with a B.A. in poetry in 1976. Harjo then received her M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Iowa in 1978. Approaching poetry as a visual artist, she brought her writing to a professional level. Harjo taught at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Arizona State University, and the University of Colorado, before becoming part of the English department at University of New Mexico in 1990. In addition to her busy lifestyle, she has a son named Phil and a daughter named Rainy Dawn.

The love of language that Harjo possesses comes from her father's grandfather who was a full-blood Creek Baptist minister and her mother who composed songs that could translate heartache.
Other important influences include Leslie Silko, Simon Ortiz, Galway Kinnell, and Leo Remero. She attended class with Leslie Silko and Galway Kinnell which inspired her to become a poet and use the beauty of words to her advantage. Since that time, Joy has released six major books containing her powerful works of poetry. The Last Song (1975), What Moon Drove Me to This (1979), She Had Some Horses (1983), Secrets from the Center of the World (1989), In Mad Love and War (1990), and The Woman Who Fell from the Sky (1994) are Harjo's pieces to her poetic puzzle. Besides writing poetry, Joy is a member of a band called Poetic Justice that combines music with poetry. She has also many screen writing credits, including teleplays, public service announcements, and public broadcasting/educational television work. Joy has and continues to edit several literary journals, including the High Plains Literary Review, Tyuonyi, and Contact II.
https://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Bios/entries/harjo_joy.html