Poet Warrior by Joy Harjo

Poet Warrior is a spectacular memoir, interlaced with poetry and song lyrics, as befits a poet who has been named a United States Poet Laureate. Much of the poetry in Harjo’s Poet Warrior is her own, but also included are poems by a diverse group of poets—from Emily Dickinson to N. Scott Momaday. The poetry included is necessary to move the narrative forward and it’s done masterfully. At the beginning of Poet Warrior, Harjo’s poems about herself refer to the poet as Girl-Warrior and once she comes of age, switches to Poet Warrior. Along with Harjo’s personal history, a helpful and relevant mini-history of the area where she grew up in Oklahoma is included. Particularly relevant is the history of The Trail of Tears. Harjo was the oldest child of a hard-working and beautiful mother and an unreliable father. Once her father was out of the picture, Harjo’s mother remarried to an unkind white man who had little interest in his wife’s four “mongrel” children. The book is divided into six parts: Ancestral Roots, Becoming, A Postcolonial Tale, Diamond Light, Teachers, and Sunset. As you might expect, the last part, Sunset, refers to Harjo’s later years, as a grandmother. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Poet Warrior, so much that I read it all in one day (one very good day!)

Czeslaw Milosz

Some time ago, I became aware of the poet Czeslaw Milosz, thanks to Kevin Young’s New Yorker Poetry podcast. In my hurried excitement, I ordered in the most popular book with Milosz listed as the author. I didn’t look closely though and didn’t realize that it was an anthology, edited by Milosz. It had a few of his poems, but mostly it was the works of others. For some reason, I never got around to ordering another Milosz book. Fast forward to 2021. The bookstore received a gift box of books—all poetry. The owners of a bookstore in Alaska are planning to retire after 30 years and are shipping boxes of gift books to independent bookstores. Among the poetry treasures in the box was a collection called The Separate Notebooks by Czeslaw Milosz.

To my surprise, when I opened the book, I discovered each poem was printed twice—once in Polish (Milosz’s native language) and once in English. Being of Polish/Russian descent, I find this fascinating. I’m in awe of the translator—I would never guess the poems were not originally written in English. (Sometimes a less than stellar translation results in a clunky read.) This collection has gone out of print, but as you hopefully know, we pride ourselves on tracking down out of print books (and without using unconscionable companies!)

Otherwise, Milosz’s poetry books that remain in print include:

For your own sample of Milosz’s work, here’s a link to his poem Campo dei Fiori, written in 1943 and included in the collection I’m reading.