Echoes from the past: "Once the World Was Perfect" By: Joy Harjo

Joy Harjo's poem, "Once the World was Perfect," explores the impact of colonialism on Native American people and offers a hopeful vision for the future. Harjo alludes to how new colonial systems disrupted the harmonious relationship Native Americans had with nature. She also uses imagery to depict infighting among Native Americans and the use of smallpox blankets by colonists. The poem emphasizes the importance of kindness and unity in overcoming the darkness and creating a better world. The poem's open-endedness allows for multiple interpretations, making it a captivating read that reveals new insights with each reading. Hi, I'm Ryan Orff, and this is Aqual Insights. Joy Harjo, in her poem, Once the World was Perfect, brings the reader on a journey through the effects of colonialism on the Native American people, and then finishes with a hopeful depiction of the future. She alludes to how new colonial systems and mindsets affected her people, and how discontent began a small rumble in the earthly mind. When Harjo refers to discontent, I think she's referring to Native Americans no longer wishing to live how they had for generations, in sync with nature. Their synchronicity was severed by the new ways of life forced upon them by the colonists. Harjo, throughout her poem, has multiple examples of illusionary imagery. She describes how we were bumping into each other in the dark. This brings up thoughts and images of possible infighting and reservations between Native Americans instead of fighting their oppressors. Another illustrative moment is when Harjo writes about how they placed the stones that blocked out the sun, those stones being demon thoughts, and how no one was without a stone. No one was better or worse than another. Later in the poem, Harjo refers to how one of the stumbling ones took pity on another and shared a blanket. This alludes to the smallpox blankets given to the Native Americans by colonists. She then goes on to talk about how this act of kindness made a spark. I believe that this spark could be referring to Native Americans stopping infighting and looking instead towards the ones who truly wronged them. I'd like to think that this poem found me. One of my favorite and least favorite facts about history is actually about the colonization of the Americas. The estimated population in the Americas pre-1492, or prior to colonization, was thought to be around 110 million people. By the 1600s, it had dropped to only around 6 million people. This mass extinction was also a factor in causing a small ice age because of the large amount of newly uninhabited land. Crazy, right? On another note, I think Harjo did a great job of hiding many different meanings and open-ended details in her poem, which allowed me as a reader to read this poem over many times and every time I would notice something new and interesting. Alright, on to the poem. Once the World Was Perfect by Joy Harjo Once the world was perfect, and we were happy in that world. Then we took it for granted. It began a small rumble in the earthly mind. Then doubt pushed through with its spiked head. And once doubt ruptured the web, all manner of demon thoughts jumped through. We destroyed the world we had been given, for inspiration, for life. Each stone of jealousy, each stone of fear, greed, envy, and hatred put out the light. No one was without a stone in his or her hand. There we were, right back where we had started. We were bumping into each other in the dark, and now we had no place to live since we didn't know how to live with each other. Then one of the stumbling ones took pity on another and shared a blanket. A spark of kindness made a light. The light made an opening in the darkness. Everyone worked together to make a ladder. A wooden clan person climbed out first into the next world, and then the other clans, the children of those clans, their children, and their children, all the way through time to now, into this morning light to you.