- Paperback: 79 pages
- Publisher: University Press Of New England (Feb 10 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 081951182X
- ISBN-13: 978-0819511829
- Product Dimensions: 23 x 17.3 x 2.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 23 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,331,008 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"Joy Harjo is now writing a visionary poetry that is among the very best we have." --Village Voice
Review
"Joy Harjo is one of the real poets of our mixed, fermenting, end-of-century North American imagination."
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Poetry "with a revolutionary fire",
By
This review is from: In Mad Love and War (Paperback)
"In Mad Love and War" is a collection of poetry by Joy Harjo. According to the author bio at the end of the book, Harjo is a member of the Creek (Muscogee) Native American nation, and grew up in Oklahoma and New Mexico. Much of this book reflects this heritage: "We were a stolen people in a stolen land" (from "Autobiography")."In Mad Love" contains many cultural and historical allusions embedded in a complex web of surreal imagery and autobiographical-sounding fragments. Harjo seems to be trying to transcend both linguistic and cultural barriers; she notes that "All poets / understand the final uselessness of words" ("Bird"). She does not only focus on the Native American experience; she also has a number of African-American cultural references. She takes us, among other places, to a prison riot in West Virginia and a political discussion in Nicaragua. Although I found some of the book opaque when I first read it, I found "In Mad Love" to be very rewarding on second and third readings. Harjo's language is often quite startling, and achingly beautiful. Much of the book seeks to find a link between the contemporary urban experience and the world of myth and nature. Throughout the book are many references to animals: the trickster Rabbit, "iridescent dragonflies," "a / turtle's nose above water," etc. Harjo writes of flooding the city "with a revolutionary fire" ("City of Fire"), and indeed the book does have a strong political flavor. Her melding of political commitment, intimate passion, myth, and multicultural awareness makes "In Mad Love and War" a demanding and intriguing read.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truthful and technically excellent,
By
This review is from: In Mad Love and War (Paperback)
Harjo is an excellent poet - her poetry is always truthful even if the truth is one that we prefer not to face. This book contains a number of prose poems as well as modern verse; it is clear that Harjo writes what is true and allows it to take the form in which it presents itself.This collection includes poems that explore human relationships, music, death ... universal concerns written about in a way that recognizes and uses the universality while selecting the images from her Cree background. We are privileged to glimpse another way of relating to the world while being presented with the difficulties of growing up in a minority culture. "At five I was designated to string beads in kindergarten. At seven I skew how to play chicken and win. And at fourteen I was drinking." But her command of the language amkes even the starkest reality beautiful: "I am fragile, a piece of pottery smoked from fire / made of dung, /the design drawn from nightmares. I am an arrow, painted / with lighning ... Harjo is one of the best contemporary poets. Try any of her books and you'll see a poet, a musician, a painter all sharing their vision with you.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Harjo's "language of lizards and stones.",
By
This review is from: In Mad Love and War (Paperback)
Joy Harjo is reason enough to read poetry. Although IN MAD LOVE ANDWAR is not one of my favorite Harjo collections, it is worth reading. In "For Anna Mae Pictor Aquash," Harjo writes, "Beneath a sky blurred with mist and wind,/ I am amazed as I watch the violet/ heads of crocuses erupt from the stiff earth/ after dying for a season,/ as I have watched my own dark head/ appear each morning after entering/ the next world/ to come back to this one,/amazed" (p. 17). In this book, Harjo writes poetry in "a language of lizards and stones" (p. 9), which is not always easy to understand. In fact, for me, many of the 44 poems here are impenetrable. Still, there are plenty of rewarding moments along the way, e.g., finding grace "with coffee and pancakes in a truck stop along Highway 80" (I), "hearing songs in pine trees" (p. 5), and "looking at the stars in this strange city, frozen in the back of the sky, the only promises that ever make sense" (p. 5), making this a book of poetry worth exploring. G. Merritt
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