Joy Harjo Quotes

Girl-Warrior was lonely
For the poetry-talk of the Old Ones.
They spoke in metaphor,
A way of language that alerted her imagination
To the presence of mystery
Where there was always a light on in the mica windows
Of her soul's house
Where knowledge did not depend on words
Of faulty human languages.

For the true warriors of the world, fighting is the last resort to solving a conflict. Every effort is made to avoid bloodshed

The most powerful poetry is birthed through cracks in history, through what is broken and unseen.

I have forgotten the reason, forgive me. I have forgotten my name in the language I was born to, forgive me.

Poetry has given me a voice, a way to speak, and it has certainly enriched my vision so that I can see more clearly.

Remember the earth whose skin you are: red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth brown earth, we are earth. Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them, listen to them. They are alive poems.

"Imagine if we natives went to the cemeteries in your cities and dug up your beloved relatives, pulled off rings, watches, and clothes, and called them "artifacts," then carried the bones over to the university for study so we could understand you. Consider that there are more bones of native people in universities and museums for study, than there are those of us living."

FIRST MORNING for Shan Goshorn, December 3, 2018 This is the first morning we are without you on earth. The sun greeted us after a week of rain In your eastern green and mountain homelands. Plants are fed, the river restored, and you have been woven Into a path of embracing stars of all colors Now free of the suffering that shapes us here. We all learn to let go, like learning how to walk When we first arrive here. All those you thought you lost now circle you And you are free of pain and heartbreak. Don’t look back, keep going. We will carry your memory here, until we join you In just a little while, in one blink of star time.

It is in times like these that we face the most cunning of tricksters. We might even find a trickster in the seat of power.

I remain very aware of my failures and often run them obsessively through my mind, which is a failure in and of itself.

I could hear my abandoned dreams making a racket in my soul.

Yes, we're still struggling to have a place here, though, ironically, we have a place. It's the fearful ones who try and keep us out who are still looking for a place. (2008)

America has always been multicultural, before the term became ubiquitous, before colonization, and it will be after.

Be who you are, even if it kills you.
It will. Over and over again.
Even as you live.

No one ever truly dies. The desires of our hearts make a path. We create legacy with our thoughts and dreams. This legacy either will give those who follow us joy on their road or will give them sorrow. (p149)