Joy Harjo
Joy Harjo
Joy Harjois a Mvskoke poet, musician, and author. She is often cited as playing a formidable role in the second wave of what critic Kenneth Lincoln termed the Native American Renaissance of the late 20th century. She is the author of such books as Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, Crazy Brave, and How We Became Humans: New and Selected Poems 1975 - 2002...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth9 May 1951
CountryUnited States of America
began begin clouds listen poetry
When I began to listen to poetry, it's when I began to listen to the stones, and I began to listen to what the clouds had to say, and I began to listen to others. And I think, most importantly for all of us, then you begin to learn to listen to the soul, the soul of yourself in here, which is also the soul of everyone else.
amazing barren beauty certainly creates desert flattered full needs
I don't see the desert as barren at all; I see it as full and ripe. It doesn't need to be flattered with rain. It certainly needs rain, but it does with what it has, and creates amazing beauty.
member sort
I am a member of the Muskogee people. I'm a poet, a musician, a dreamer of sorts, a questioner. Like everyone else, I'm looking for answers of some sort or the other.
line
I come from a long line of revolutionaries.
exist field humans rely sacred vulnerable
Humans are vulnerable and rely on the kindnesses of the earth and the sun; we exist together in a sacred field of meaning.
birthplace ceremonial congo originally people
Most people don't know that Congo Square was originally a Muscogee ceremonial ground... in New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz.
ancestors history include indian largest leaders refused sign stick treaty united war
My ancestors include Monahwee, who was one of the leaders in the Red Stick War, which was the largest Indian uprising in history, and Osceola, who refused to sign a treaty with the United States.
aspects care cultures developed human indian looked people spiritual taken
I don't like this romanticization of Indian people in which Indian people are looked at as spiritual saviors, as people who have always taken care of the land. We're human beings. But I think different cultures have developed different aspects of humanness.
bridges historical raw-materials
At least I've had to come to that in my life, to realize that this stuff called failure, this stuff, this debris of historical trauma, family trauma, you know, stuff that can kill your spirit, is actually raw material to make things with and to build a bridge. You can use those materials to build a bridge over that which would destroy you.
mistake
There is no poetry where there are no mistakes.
suicidal chicago east
The woman hanging from the 13th floor window on the east side of Chicago is not alone...She is all the women of the apartment building who stand watching her, watching themselves.
horse sky rainbow
In Isleta the rainbow was a crack in the universe. We saw the barest of all life that is possible. Bright horses rolled over and over the dusking sky.
each-day world walks
I know I walk in and out of several worlds each day.
mind places poetry whether
You just go where poetry is, whether it's in your heart or your mind or in books or in places where there's live poetry or recordings.