Fires

Fire symbolizes the primordial nature of life. As a basic fundamental element that creates heat and light for cooking, land management, and protection, fire has played an essential role in human evolution. However, fire also represents the way that things can rage out of control if not carefully tended to. In the poem, fire evokes this complex relationship when Harjo portrays groups of guardians and soul-keepers sitting around fires.

Circles

Circles symbolize the cyclical nature of life. These cycles could refer to overall patterns of life, death, and rebirth, as well as the minutae of a single person's life. The latter includes the give-and-receive nature of reciprocal relationships as well as the pattern of one's spirit leaving and returning to one's body. The speaker has absolute faith that readers will succeed in reuniting their spirits with their bodies. This is shown in the lines, "When you...