Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years Hardcover – November 1, 2022

Good

Harjo is often a teacher who can help the reader find a sustaining center: kinder to ourselves, or to a community. She also has here a few enigmatic poems that are not just obscurity pretending to be profundity, but rather engines propelling us to participate in the creativity. I especially enjoyed the first half of this valuable book.

She’s a gift to those who stop to read her work.

Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light is a collection of 50 poems by Joy Harjo, the last United States Poet Laureate. In this collection, Harjo gathers and then discusses 50 poems she has written over the course of her 50-year career. The poems range in topic and change throughout the course of Harjo's life. Many of them focus on Harjo's identity as a Native American.This was a lovely collection of poetry and a great way to start off 2023. I appreciated the reflective nature of an anthology of poetry spanning 50 years - it matched the mood for the new year perfectly.** Thanks so much to Joy Harjo, W. W. Norton & Company, and NetGalley for this ARC! Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light is available now. **

A real fan of Joy’s writings

Handles beauty deeply and handles horror revealingly.

This is my first experience with this author. I like her ability to connect personal experiences with nature, which contrasts significantly with American culture. I like how she tells stories with metaphors and similes, although it is somewhat difficult for someone whose first language is Spanish. *Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light* shows the best of her work, which covers different aspects such as passion. I especially love that way of expressing herself, knowing how she celebrates her roots with passion and an excellent lyricism that demonstrates a unique passion. I especially loved how each poem has deep cultural roots and universal themes. It is like this way of expressing herself, which is very special since it invites the reader to imagine. Harjo's notes at the end illuminate the origin of each poem in a way that feels personal and resonant. Joy Harjo's heartfelt introduction sets the perfect tone because sometimes I had difficulty understanding the poems.

5 starsJoy Harjo's collection of 50 poems for 50 years clearly reflects all of the reasons her work has rapidly risen to its canonical standing, and the presentation of this particular grouping is exceptional.Anyone who considers reading this book will likely have a sense of what to expect as Harjo has such a characteristic voice and style. Her attention to feminine experience, connection to nature and physical spaces in general, and exploration of deep human truths all come through clearly in the selections published here. As one of the (far too) few indigenous writers who receives regular popular attention, Harjo reveals both culturally relevant and widely accessible themes and motifs. Whether the reader is a practiced explicator of poetry or just coming to the text because that name sounds familiar, everyone will find a way to connect here.Having been familiar with (and taught) Harjo's work for many years, I expected a fantastic collection of poetry, but the added surprises of Harjo's relatively thorough notes at the end and Sandra Cisneros's warm tribute at the start make this text a fitting culmination of a thus far outstanding career (with hopefully many years and many memorable poems still to come).