“First Morning” by Joy Harjo

This is the first morning we are without you on earth.
The sun greeted us after a week of rain
In your eastern green and mountain homelands.
Plants are fed, the river restored, and you have been woven
into a path of embracing stars of all colors
Now free of the suffering that shapes us here.

In “First Morning,” Poet Laureate Joy Harjo describes what it is like for people to wake up the next morning after losing a loved one. She speaks of nature’s response to their grief. The sun shines, the plants are fed, and the river is restored. Harjo writes that the person who died has been “woven” into a path — alluding to the natural return of flesh to the earth after death.

Joy Harjo via joyharjo.com
Credit: Matika Wilbur

Joy Harjo is our three-time national Poet Laureate, only the second poet to receive the title three times. She is from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and belongs to the Muscogee Nation. Harjo is a significant contributor to the Native American Renaissance of the 20th century. Her work often expresses her spirituality, which is in contrast to the mainstream pop culture of the day.

We all learn to let go, like learning to walk
When we first arrive here.
All those you thought you lost now circle you
And you are free of pain and heartbreak.
Don’t look back, keep going.
We will carry your memory here, until we join you
In just a little while, in one blink of star time.

Harjo believes death is a natural part of life; therefore, everyone learns to let go, to move on. It is the natural way of things. “First Morning” assures the person who died that the people left behind are not lost or hurting. In Harjo’s poem, the mourners are happy that the loved one is now free of pain. She encourages the loved one to keep going, to not worry about the living. Soon, those left behind will join the loved one. The time and space between their reunion will be so short, barely a moment in the span of eternity.

“First Morning” has a tone of peace and warmth. Harjo has compassion for the deceased person’s spirit, which may want to hang around to make sure their loved ones are all right. However, she wants the spirit to know they can move on, they can enter their rest. The first morning after a death doesn’t have to be dismal and gray, but rather another transition in a life full of them. Loved ones will be reunited when the time comes. Everyone will be together again.

Watch Joy Harjo read “First Morning” below.