Joy Harjo's Web Log

It's Thursday afternoon in Honolulu. The house behind us has been razed and now two houses are being raised up in its place. Can the land support it? Do we have enough fresh water? And next door the neighbors who have poor construction tastes are adding something else that involves digging, pouring and making racket.

I've been trying to figure out the path through these times. And how to walk, sing, drive, saxophone, write, act or be it. There's no mistake we're in the middle of the end of this particular world. Flying in over Diamond Head crater and Waikiki a few days ago broke my heart. The waters are sad, dingy. The land aching with the pressure of thoughtlessness. Can we turn it around now? The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment contracted to Bob Corel (sp?) states that 98% of all the worlds glaciers are melting, the seas are consequently rising, and the warming of the environment is causing the ferocious and multiple storms that have flooded and torn up the lands. Even if we stop now, he said, the damage has been done. And the U.S. is the highest polluter.

Another resource, a healer in Cherokee country in Oklahoma says someone in his circle has given the date as 2010 as the date this particular era ends.

Started working on this song, out of all this. It will be up on the podcast. Please forgive the roughness. It's a song draft, not a complete song. But something. A feel. We don't live or make most of our stories from words.