Joy Harjo's "Raining in Honolulu"

One of my favorite poems in Joy Harjo’s How We Became Human was “Raining in Honolulu,” on page 194. Before I get into why I love this poem, I want to point out a quote that struck me from her introduction. She states, “This earth asks for so little from us human beings.” This is very true. We exist because this earth supports life, bottom line. All we have to do is avoid destroying it in return (which isn’t working out so well). Anyway, this line got me thinking about colonization and how it relates to Harjo’s poem, “Raining in Honolulu.” The last six lines of the poem are as follows:

Rain opens us, like flowers, or earth that has been thirsty for more than a season.

We stop all of our talking, quit thinking, or blowing sax to drink the mystery.

We listen to the breathing beneath our breathing.

This is how the rain became rain, how we became human.

The wetness saturates everything, including the perpetrators of the second overthrow.

We will plant songs where there were curses

I just love how she creates the image that we, along with the earth and everything on it, are drinking the same water. The earth and humans are both living organisms that need water to survive. I also love the second and third lines from above because we, humans, stop whatever it is we are doing and drink water every single day. We stop communicating and thinking for those brief periods of time when we are drinking with the earth. This poem really makes you stop and think about the little things that can be taken for granted very easily.

Yeah, water is water and it’s there. But we drink it and it keeps us alive which is mind blowing when you think about it. Why earth? Why us? Also, I love the “we listen to the breathing beneath our breathing” line. I interpret this as being the wind, which is always there but rarely appreciated. Granted, I don’t know how one can appreciate wind without feeling a little bit foolish. But just the fact that it is there and we feel it is a miracle in itself.

I know I have been rambling with this post but I was kind of blown away with this poem. The last two lines of this poem evoke the colonization of America and theft of American Indian land. The non-violent tone Harjo takes by saying, “We will plant songs where there were curses,” is very admirable. Harjo has a right to be angry and I don’t think anyone would blame her if she vocalized her rage. Yet, she remains an optimist and chooses music to spread her message, which is kind of an organic life form in itself. This is a fantastic poem that I am definitely including in the lessons for my final project.