Joy Harjo: Image borrowed from BingYesterday I was in a prison quarry, breaking stones.
It was the quarry inside.
I had a talkative lunch, walked a few miles, photographed and found startling images that may turn into some large pieces. Watched some stand up comedy--all this with a beautiful illusion, a man with a beating heart, shining eyes, kindness, and a muscular, kinetic presence.
Because I am in the thinking/dreaming/inventing phase of my next play, I Think I Love You, An All Night Round Dance, about romantic love, I keep scanning people in restaurants, cars, airports, to notice the shape of romantic love in their consciousness. You can see it in the body, where it lives and how it works. Some have dismissed it. Others are in the throes of it. Some are nearly broken.
Then there I was, in it, I had become my own experiment. I had built a love story. I was the only one in it. I had to break the stones of illusion so that I would not linger there. And as I walked through the day I continued to lift the hammer and break stones. I continued to break stones way past sundown.
This morning the stones are broken. There is only sunrise.
Joy Harjo
Posted over on her site Poetic Adventures in the Last World Blog
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