For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2015

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Related Poems

“In Mystic” by Joy Harjo (2015)

In this poem, the speaker encounters the town of Mystic, once settled by pilgrims. They explore their place in the town. The settlers slaughtered 600 Native American individuals and built a church over their graveyard. The speaker says they knows it is their job to write about this history, that “[e]very poem is an effort at ceremony” (Line 35). At the end of the poem the speaker asks for a way “in” (Line 36). The speaker explains the history that Harjo has inherited and elaborates on the negative feelings that they and some readers may be carrying in their bodies, minds, and hearts.

“Once the World Was Perfect” by Joy Harjo (2015)

This is another poem from Harjo’s collection, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings. The speaker tells a mythical story about how people started as perfect beings and then devolved as they experienced doubt, jealousy, and the “stone[s]” (Lines 10, 12) of other negative emotions. One person offered another a blanket, and thus began the climb out of the imperfect world. Like “For Calling the Spirit Back…,” this poem offers a message of hope and encouragement; we can find redemption by helping one another through the dark.

“Grace” Joy Harjo (1990)

This poem is more directly autobiographical. Unlike some of Harjo’s Poems which speak to a wide audience or tell myths about the creation of the world, “Grace” is self-referential. The speaker uses the word “I” to describe their past and the difficulties they have faced. Redemption does not come for them on earth; at the end of the poem the speaker says that things got worse for them. They note that there is “something larger than the memory of a dispossessed people” (Lines 21- 22) and that they have “seen it” (Line 22). Like many of Harjo’s poems, “Grace” incorporates animals that are archetypal to Muscogee people, including the white buffalo, as a sacred signpost of their journey.

Further Literary Resources

“Crazy Brave A Memoir by Joy Harjo, Book Review” by Jon M. Sweeney (2015)

Sweeney’s review of Harjo’s memoir, Crazy Brave, discusses Harjo’s changing relationship to religion and spirituality. Sweeney explains that Harjo was raised nominally Christian but left Christianity when she was 13, as it discouraged her from having or pursuing visions. Since then, Harjo has become a more openly mystic poet and writer, incorporating mythology from the Creek tradition into her works, such as “For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet.”

“On Being with Krista Tippett, Joy Harjo, The Whole of Time” (2021)

In this interview, Tippett asks Harjo about her spirituality and spiritual practices. Harjo says that sometimes it has been hard for her to write about her visions because they seem fantastical, and in some instances, she has tried to remove them from her writing before sending it to a publisher. Tippett notes that she, herself, was born and raised in Oklahoma but hadn’t really been aware of the history of the native people who lived alongside her. It is through reading Harjo’s writing that she has come to better understand her own hometown and a different side of its history.

“From the Vault—Folklore of the Muscogee Creek People” Mvskoke Media, YouTube (2009)

This short documentary introduces some basic Creek myths. Dr. Ruth Arrington, a folklorist, explains that the myths convey ideas from one generation to another. A Creek grandmother reads several stories to her granddaughter, explaining how the world came into being, and tells several stories about the Creek’s main god, “The Controller of Breath.”

Listen to Poem

Joy Harjo reads "For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet"

Harjo reads her poem and explains what it means to her. She says that many of “our people,” meaning Native American individuals, often get caught in shame. Once she was able to tell some of the stories that caused her shame, she felt free of it. This is one of the main themes of “Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet.”