Perhaps the World Ends Here

“Speaking Tree” by Joy Harjo (2015)

Published as part of her collection Conflict Resolutions for Holy Beings, “Speaking Tree” is an example of Harjo’s environmental poetry. Harjo, who has a reverence for nature and caring for the earth, creates a speaker who proclaims, “I am a woman longing to be a tree” (Line 10). This poem will give readers a sense of Harjo’s earthly sentiments and how deeply she values nature.

“For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet” by Joy Harjo (2015)

Also published in Harjo’s 2015 collection, Conflict Resolutions for Holy Beings, this poem calls readers to “Acknowledge this earth” (Line 7). So much of Harjo’s poetry is about gratitude, a theme that runs through both “Perhaps the World Ends Here” and this poem. Reading these two poems alongside each other will give a reader a clearer understanding of Harjo’s message to “help the next person find their way through the dark” (Line 30).

“The Powwow at the End of the World” by Sherman Alexie (1996)

Sherman Alexie is a well-known Native American poet who writes often of Native American life on the reservation. “The Powwow at the End of the World” is a unique poem to read alongside Harjo’s “Perhaps the World Ends Here” as both deal with the concept of apocalypse.