“This Morning I Pray For My Enemies” by Joy Harjo

 

And whom do I call my enemy?

An enemy must be worthy of engagement.

I turn in the direction of the sun and keep walking.

It’s the heart that asks the question, not my furious mind.

The heart is the smaller cousin of the sun.

It sees and knows everything.

It hears the gnashing even as it hears the blessing.

The door to the mind should only open from the heart.

An enemy who gets in, risks the danger of becoming a friend.

 

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Food for Thought—

 

1. Harjo uses personification to compare the heart to the sun. How might this strategy help establish Harjo’s relationship with nature and the surrounding world?

 

2. Harjo begins the poem with a question: “And whom do I call my enemy?” Where might this question be answered within the poem, either explicitly or implicitly?

 

3. From Harjo’s memoir, Crazy Brave, can you think of a person in her life who might have inspired this poem?