BOOK MARKS
Local poet satisfies hunger for thoughtful writing

How We Became Human — New And Selected Poems: 1975-2001 by Joy Harjo; Norton, paper, $15.95

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Books Editor

I was tempted, after reading this collection, to describe it as a rich feast, but that has the implication of heaviness, overindulgence. This book — full of poems that span the Honolulu poet's career, with its equally poetic introduction and revealing end notes — is more like a well-chosen meal served when one is just at the right degree of hunger.

Each course complements the others, but has its own value and beauty. The meal is not devoured but lingered over and shared with others, and the conversation is both a spice and source of sustenance. One leaves the table satisfied and also thoughtful.

Poetry is not much known or understood or loved in America. We are afraid of poems; we think we won't understand them, we will be made to feel stupid. But Harjo's work opens to even the most timid reading, and opens again, rewarding re-reading and pondering.

Harjo, a member of the Muscogee Nation who makes her home on O'ahu when she is not traveling the world for readings and workshops for and with indigenous peoples, takes as her theme one that Islanders know from our own indigenous culture.

As she writes in "Rushing the Pali," built from a day with too much to do and too many errands pushing her along Honolulu highways: "There is holy woven/ through all life/ if that is so then even in the rush/ can be found/ mythic roots."