Native American Literature Anthology 2.0

In this poem Joy Hargo is finally ready to expel her fear. In the first stanza of the poem she describes her fear as "beloved and hated twin" signifying that fear played a significan part in her life. The fact that it was beloved shows she was okay with fear; it was her safety blanket. At the same time she also hated it. Fear can be crippling. It can run someone's life. For Harjo, it was both. At the end of the stanza she is ready to let it go. She no longer wants fear to be apart of her life. She's tired of letting it manipulate her life. She's tired of letting fear win. The line "you are not my blood anymore" is powerful. Reflecting back to the first stanza, it shows the deep relationship she had with fear. It was almost as if it was apart of her family: a part of her. But no longer. It will not be afiliated with her, or her family, any longer.

In the third stanza she brings in the white man. She's giving the fear back to them, because it was fear, or intolerance, of difference that consumed the white man. He was scared of what how many Native Americans there were. He was scared of what would happen to his own race should he let it go on. His fear consumed him and drove him to commit a genocide. He destroyed the Native American's way of life and murdered countless innocent people. Today, they still live in poverty and continued to get over looked by the government. Harjo has decided that she'll leave fear to the white man. He can continue to let his life be run by it, but she refuses to anymore. The fourth stanza relates to the third. The history of the Native Americans will always be there. They can never forget, but it doesn't mean she has to live in fear of it. Instead, she's going to take that history and use it to make it stronger. If her ancestors survived all that violence and hatred, then she can rise above fear. 

In the fifth and sixth stanzas, her feelings are growing stronger. She's done. The repetition of the "I release you" is said to mimick the human heart beat. It's with each "I release you" that her courage grows more and more. By the time the reader gets to the seventh stanza, the poem is climaxing. She is not afraid of anything anymore. She's not afraid of her mixed heritage. She is not afraid of love or hate or anger. She has freed herself from all doubt. She is free. The last four stanza's are like a breath of fresh air. All the pain that was felt at the beginning of the poem has been let go. She repeats the same pattern as the beginning of the poem, telling fear that he has no power over her anymore. She may have enabled it before, but not anymore. Fear has no existence inside her anymore. By the end of the poem, the reader can sense the empowerment this piece gave to Harjo. Even the visual placement of the words in the very last stanza make it sound like a voice is trailing off. She is done. Fear lost.

This was one of my favorite poems of the year. Though I'm not Native American, I could relate to several parts of this poem. I think anyone can. Fear is a constant battle each one of us fights. It takes a lot to finally let go and not let yourself be controlled by it. Harjo illustrated the process well by reflecting on the things that scared her most. By addressing these things, she was finally able to let go. This goes to show that the old saying "to get over your fear, you must address it head on" is fairly accurate.