Living in Hotels

Living in Hotels

1.
Living in hotels and the city is getting to me.
Last night I stayed at the home
of my music producer, Larry Mitchell,
because we went late in the music studio.
He and his wife rent a home
out in the hills west of Santa Fe.
I went out into the morning on the back patio,
to the realm of the sun, earth, birds, lizards,
and pinon and cedar trees. I heard: quiet.
And in the quiet you can hear your heart,
the earth’s heart, the sun’s heart,
and the sound of the direction of your life
as it merges with the whole of life.
I learned as much out there this morning
as I can in a book, or a whole library of books.
I saw and heard what I needed to know
as I headed back into the other part of the story.

2.
Living in hotels and the city is getting to me. Last night I stayed at the home of my music producer, Larry Mitchell, because we went late in the music studio. He and his wife rent a home out in the hills west of Santa Fe. I went out into the morning on the back patio, to the realm of the sun, earth, birds, lizards, and pinon and cedar trees. I heard: quiet. And in the quiet you can hear your heart, the earth’s heart, the sun’s heart, and the sound of the direction of your life as it merges with the whole of life. I learned as much out there this morning as I can in a book, or a whole library of books. I saw and heard what I needed to know as I headed back into the other part of the story.

Joy Harjo

Posted over on her site Poetic Adventures in the Last World

1. Line breaks by Glenn Buttkus
2. Prose by Joy Harjo