#joy harjo

[fawnaura]

Call your spirit back. It may be caught in corners and creases of shame, judgment, and human abuse. You must call in a way that your spirit will want to return. Speak to it as you would to a beloved child. Welcome your spirit back from its wandering. It may return in pieces, in tatters. Gather them together. They will be happy to be found after being lost for so long. Your spirit will need to sleep awhile after it is bathed and given clean clothes. Now you can have a party. Invite everyone you know who loves and supports you. Keep room for those who have no place else to go. Make a giveaway, and remember, keep the speeches short. Then, you must do this: help the next person find their way through the dark.

Joy Harjo, from Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light, "For Calling The Spirit Back From Wandering The Earth in its Human Feet"

[apoemaday]

This Morning I Pray for My Enemies

by Joy Harjo

And whom do I call my enemy? An enemy must be worthy of engagement. I turn in the direction of the sun and keep walking. It’s the heart that asks the question, not my furious mind. The heart is the smaller cousin of the sun. It sees and knows everything. It hears the gnashing even as it hears the blessing. The door to the mind should only open from the heart. An enemy who gets in, risks the danger of becoming a friend.

[andrumedus]

...my heart had become a phoenix of swallowed myths. [...]

Joy Harjo, In Mad Love and War; “Hieroglyphic”

[undinesea]

—to be opened, shivering and wet with love.

Joy Harjo, from “Four Songs,” from A Map to the Next World

[sashayed]

Invisible Fish

Invisible fish swim this ghost ocean now described by waves of sand, by water-worn rock. Soon the fish will learn to walk. Then humans will come ashore and paint dreams on the dying stone. Then later, much later, the ocean floor will be punctuated by Chevy trucks, carrying the dreamers’ descendants, who are going to the store.

Joy Harjo Secrets from the Center of the World, 1989

[forever70s]

Joy Harjo, circa late 1970s

[arcaneweaving]

the lovers’ promise

“Epitaph” by Marina Tsvetaeva in Poems to A Son // Sula by Toni Morrison // Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson // “Postcolonial Love Poem” by Natalie Diaz // “Not for a Nation” by Edna St. Vincent Millay in From Mine to Harvest // “The Real Revolution is Love” by Joy Harjo in How We Became Human // Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector // “Fragments From a Parable” by June Jordan in Directed by Desire // “Native Soil” by Anna Akhmatova in Northern Elegies

[badpeopleprosper]

From Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings by Joy Harjo. / The Forest for the Trees by Rena Priest / Trees by Joyce Kilmer

[poetrysmackdown]

[soracities]

Poetry is not a career — it is a state of being. You become poetry or are in a state of becoming with poetry. My chronological map of becoming would not be linear, rather it has been crisscrossed with arcs of events, poems, poets, arts, music, all bound and directed by history and memory.

Joy Harjo, from "The Craft of Writing: Joy Harjo on listening and writing with intention"

[uwmspeccoll]

Voices of the Land

What better way to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day than to highlight this landmark anthology that commemorates the Indigenous Peoples of North America? When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, edited by Joy Harjo with Leanne Howe, Jennifer Elise Foerster, is a curated collection that features the poetry of 160 poets each showcasing a distinct voice from nearly 100 Indigenous Nations. This is the first edition from 2020, published by W. W. Norton & Company in New York.

The anthology is the first to provide a historically comprehensive collection of Native poetry. The literary traditions of Native Americans, the original poets of this country, date back centuries. The book opens with a blessing from Pulitzer Prize winner American Kiowa/Cherokee N. Scott Momaday (1934-2024) and contains introductions from contributing editors for five geographically organized sections. Each section begins with a poem from traditional oral literature and closes with emerging poets, creating a rich and diverse tapestry of Indigenous voices.

Joy Harjo, a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, is a prominent figure in the literary world. She is known for her work as a poet, musician, playwright, and author. In addition to her contributions to literature, Harjo is also a celebrated performer and has released several albums combining poetry and music. In 2019, she made history by becoming the first Native American United States Poet Laureate and only the second to serve three terms. Throughout her career, Harjo has been a vocal advocate for Indigenous rights and has used her art to shed light on the experiences of Native peoples.

The following is an excerpt from Harjo’s introduction to this work:

“The anthology then is a way to pass on the poetry that has emerged from rich traditions of the very diverse cultures of indigenous peoples from these indigenous lands, to share it. Most readers will have no idea that there is or was a single Native poet, let alone the number included in this anthology. Our existence as sentient human beings in the establishment of this country was denied. Our presence is still an afterthought, and fraught with tension, because our continued presence means that the mythic storyline of the founding of this country is inaccurate. The United States is a very young country and has been in existence for only a few hundred years. Indigenous peoples have been here for thousands upon thousands of years and we are still here.”

View other Indigenous Peoples' Day posts.

View other posts from our Native American Literature Collection.

-Melissa (Stockbridge-Munsee), Special Collections Graduate Intern

We acknowledge that in Milwaukee we live and work on traditional Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, and Menominee homelands along the southwest shores of Michigami, part of North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes, where the Milwaukee, Menominee, and Kinnickinnic rivers meet and the people of Wisconsin’s sovereign Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Oneida, and Mohican nations remain present.

[fawnaura]

To survive is sometimes a leap into madness. The fingers of saints are still hot from miracles, but can they save themselves?

Joy Harjo, from “Bird” in Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light

[apoemaday]

Don't Bother the Earth Spirit

by Joy Harjo

Don’t bother the earth spirit who lives here. She is working on a story. It is the oldest story in the world and it is delicate, changing. If she sees you watching she will invite you in for coffee, give you warm bread, and you will be obligated to stay and listen. But this is no ordinary story. You will have to endure earthquakes, lightning, the deaths of all those you love, the most blinding beauty. It’s a story so compelling you may never want to leave; this is how she traps you. See that stone finger over there? That is the only one who ever escaped.

[andrumedus]

Come, sweet, I am a house with many rooms. There is no end. Each room is a street to the next world. Where live other cities beneath incendiary skies. And you have made a fire in every room. Come. Lie with me before the flame.

Joy Harjo, In Mad Love and War; “City of Fire”

[aemperatrix]

[seekingstars]

The Creation Story - Joy Harjo