This Morning I Pray for My Enemies

The title and opening line of Harjo’s poem operate as an invitation into the speaker’s point of view. Though the poem never specifies a setting—a clear time and place where the poem transpires—the title helps orient readers to a scene where the speaker is praying in the morning. From there, the first line introduces a philosophical musing: praying for one’s enemies requires knowing who one’s enemies are. The pairing of a simple statement in the title with a broad, introspective question in the first line helps to establish a reflective tone for the poem overall.

“This Morning” is also marked by Harjo’s choice of perspective; the first-person singular is made important even in the title. In addition, Harjo’s use of the present tense amplifies the immediacy of the question posed. The second line of the poem develops the narrative of the poem more explicitly. An enemy, the speaker says, “must be worthy of engagement” (Line 2). This marks a shift in direction from a more confessional self-focused poem into a text more clearly rooted in philosophy. The question of “whom […] I call my enemy” (Line 1) is not just an individual reflection on the speaker’s part but a larger entry point into questions of who an enemy may be for anyone.

The third line in the poem moves back to the first person with the second setting clue as the speaker turns towards “the sun” (Line 3). Harjo’s reference here may possibly be in part to ground her speaker in a southwestern setting; walking towards the sun is a kind of symbolic journey reminiscent of desert narratives. The “turn” of the speaker implies also that they were physically facing away from the “sun” as they pondered the first question of praying for their enemies. This could be viewed as a thematic turn in the poem: moving away from wondering about enemies and towards understanding oneself.

Following the turn in line three, Harjo’s speaker begins describing the relationship between their heart and their mind. It seems that this is intended as one of the major purposes of the poem; Harjo wants readers to investigate how a person’s heart governs their relationship with their mind and with their actions. The philosophical question of enemies is, in part, answered in Lines 4-6 by personifying the organ: The heart is “the smaller cousin of the sun” (Line 5) and “knows everything” (Line 6). If the sun is a symbol of a dawning, more positive outlook, the heart is the appropriate guide for the person seeking this new understanding.

The poem continues without mentioning enemies in Lines 7-8, as the speaker comes to a loose conclusion about how the heart should operate. Although Harjo primarily writes in abstract terms in “This Morning,” the personification of the heart makes it feel as though there is another character alongside the speaker. The heart, which understands both the speaker’s “gnashing” and “blessing” (Line 7), is the only thing capable of opening up the person’s mind. The speaker decides that the sole time the “door to the mind” (Line 8) opens should be when it is “from the heart” (Line 8).

As the poem concludes in the ninth line, the speaker finally circles back to their opening question: The poem concludes that if the speaker opens the mind, then an enemy risks “becoming a friend” (Line 9). Relationships with perceived enemies are a key thematic element of “This Morning,” yet much of the poem deals with the speaker’s internal landscape mirrored by the external. By turning towards the sun and the heart, the speaker is able to reimagine who one’s enemies might be and what one’s orientation should be toward those people.