Anchorage

One aspect of Joy Harjo's poem "Anchorage" that really interested me was the connections to the elements that she uses. The first stanza lays out the scene in relation to these aspects. "The Chugatch Mountains to the wast and the whale and seal to the west." Here she orients the readers. She is using not only using the physical element of the mountains but also the element of nature with the placing of the larger sea mammals.  She reinforces the importance of the elements with the second half of the stanza. Her illusion to the glaciers as "ghosts" and their ability to shape the landscape goes beyond the physical aspects of what they can do. She uses them to represent the break between past and present, nature and urban. They represent the power of nature, when it is allowed to exist. Throught the poem she returns to the idea of the elements representing nature. She speaks of fire, "boiling earth cracked open", air, "another ocean we can't see" in addition to the earth and water of the first stanza. These images are juxtaposed with gritty urban vignettes to highlight the battle between the two. The forces of nature versus the "progress" of man.