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| "Salmon Spirit in Blue" by Roger Fernandes, Lower Elwha Tribe |
Invisible Fish
by Joy Harjo
Invisible fish swim this ghost ocean now described by waves of sand, by water-worn rock. Soon the fish will learn to walk. . . .
Read the rest HERE.
To date, 14 states (Alabama, Alaska, Hawai'i, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin), the District of Columbia, more than 130 cities, and growing numbers of school districts celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day in place of or in addition to Columbus Day. Here are five ideas for celebrating Indigenous Peoples' Day from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.
Thanks, M.!
ReplyDeleteA perfect pairing of illustration and poem!
ReplyDeleteGreat pairing and ideas for celebrating!
ReplyDeletePerfect pairing of poem and image. Thanks for the Joy Harjo fix; I'm glad to see more and more people observing Indigenous Peoples Day.
ReplyDeleteHarjo evokes, in a few short lines, millennia of change. Yes, nice pairing with the painting. Thanks for sharing this.
ReplyDelete-The power of few words - just, BAM. Gorgeous image and haunting lines, for the observance of this day, and for remembering.
ReplyDeleteYeah, we don't celebrate Columbus around here. He's not exactly a hero in Haiti!
ReplyDeleteWow. Thanks for sharing the Joy Harjo poem--what a powerfully compact journey through time-- and for the image. As so many others mentioned, it's a great pairing. I'm so glad that Maine is among the many states celebrating Indigenous People's Day.
ReplyDeleteLove the painting. thanks for sharing the poem as well. I'm so glad that our school district (in a fairly conservative area) seems to be phasing Columbus day out. The kids still often get a professional day, but it isn't associated with Columbus at all.
ReplyDeleteColorado no longer holds Columbus Day as a holiday but they had mixed messages about Indigenous People's Day this year. The poem filled with irony is one I wish everyone could read and understand. Thanks, Michelle.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this powerful poem, so many layers of life that's been wrongly altered, and in so few lines. We reviewed it in a Poetry Foundation workshop I was in over the summer. Chicago celebrates Indigenous People's Day–I hope IL will join. Beautiful art too! xo
ReplyDeleteMy friend Liz Garton Scanlon emailed me this poem yesterday: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/154208/dear-life Another poem with a fish in it and visceral images that make you think deeply. I love it when poems I would have totally missed come to me from various sources and have connections with each other. Thanks, Michelle!
ReplyDeleteOh, you're good....I don't know how you do it, but you're good. Do you think you could create an anthology of pairings? I think you could. It would be incredible. I love your eye.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this poem, Michelle. I am in awe of how Joy Harjo packs so much meaning and power into her poetry. On the way to our son's home in Virginia, we drive past an outlet mall in Gettysburg. I often wonder what the soldiers who fought and died there would think about this shrine to consumerism being located so close to these battlefields.
ReplyDeleteLovely. Loving. Lovelost and hoping it will be returned soon. HIPD to you!
ReplyDeleteMichelle, thank you for recognizing Indigenous Peoples' Day. the poem is a beautiful one for all to read, as in the artwork you paired with it. AT a #NCFL conference I sat n a room of hundreds of indigenous people who listened intently to an author talk about the boarding school era that took children from homes to Americanize them in boarding schools. I did not realize that it still existed during the 1950s. It was a profound gathering of those who experienced the insult and those who were unaware. Harjo's poem brings this home to me.
ReplyDeleteI'm working on a climate change story, Michelle. This poem struck a chord with me today.
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