Nature is a Kitchen Table

The poem “Perhaps the world ends here" is a wonderful narrative and symbolic poem discussing the beauty and pain that nature can bring to anyone at anytime throughout their life; from birth until death. Joy Harjo brilliantly uses a kitchen table to symbolize our life source, our life source being nature. The kitchen table is prepared for us before we are born and will be there long after we move on, for the next generation. Harjo shares a story of experiences people endure throughout their lives. Some of these experiences include eating to survive, crying, laughing, and just living in general. I find while reading this poem that nature is described as our life source, our means to survive, and our way to pass on. Harjo uses a house and an umbrella to symbolize how nature is our protector and how nature keeps us safe. Nature gives us the freedom to live, the freedom to laugh, and the okay to cry when it is necessary.

I feel that Harjo perceives nature in spiritual terms; she believes that nature is sacred, something we could not live without and very significant to each human being that resides here on earth. She also sees the environment in dreams and finds peace within nature. Like Dillard, Harjo agrees that with spirituality comes cruelty and pain. Harjo references pain with sorrow, war, and death. Both Harjo and Dillard are very appreciative of nature, one speaks through journals and one speaks through poems.