Joy Harjo Quotes

We are story gatherers. That's what we humans do.

FOR THOSE WHO WOULD GOVERN First question: Can you first govern yourself? Second question: What is the state of your own household? Third question: Do you have a proven record of community service and compassionate acts? Fourth question: Do you know the history and laws of your principalities? Fifth question: Do you follow sound principles? Look for fresh vision to lift all the inhabitants of the land, including animals, plants, elements, all who share this earth? Sixth question: Are you owned by lawyers, bankers, insurance agents, lobbyists, or other politicians, anyone else who would unfairly profit by your decisions? Seventh question: Do you have authority by the original keepers of the lands, those who obey natural law and are in the service of the lands on which you stand?

In my community, we are taught that leadership qualities include humility, compassion, a sense of fairness, the ability to listen, preparation and carry-through, a love for the people, and a strong spiritual center that begins with a connection to Earth.

These fathers, boyfriends, and husbands were all men we loved, and were worthy of love. As peoples we had been broken. We were still in the bloody aftermath of a violent takeover of our lands. Within a few generations we had gone from being nearly one hundred percent of the population of this continent to less than one-half of one percent. (p158)

Let's not shame our eyes for seeing. Instead, thank them for their bravery.

By listening we will understand who we are in this holy realm of words.

It was impossible to make it through the tragedy
Without poetry. What are we without winds becoming words?

I began to understand that poetry did not have to be ... of an English that was always lonesome for its homeland in Europe.

In the short-root mind, a kind of mind of a people whose children don't even know the names of their great-grandparents, there is no past. Everything is right now. This kind of mind has its roots in the material culture, in what can be accumulated. My great-grandfather reminds me that we need to keep within the long-rooted mind. Because of the longer roots we have a larger structure of knowing from which to take on understanding.

We will keep going despite dark
Or a madman in a white house dream.

What I Should Have Said

There's nothing that says you can't
call. I spend the weekdays teaching
and moving my children from breakfast
to bedtime. What else, I feel like a traitor
telling someone else things I can't tell
to you. What is it that keeps us together?
Fingertip to fingertip, from Santa Fe
to Albuquerque?
I feel bloated with what I should say
and what I don't. We drift and drift, with
few storms of heat inbetween the motions.
I love you. The words confuse me.
Maybe they have become a cushion
keeping us in azure sky and in flight
not there, not here.
We are horses knocked out with tranquilizers
sucked into a deep deep sleeping for the comfort
and anesthesia death. We are caught between
clouds and wet earth
and there is no motion
either way
no life
to speak of.

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.

Under our ribs
our hearts are bloody stars. Shine on
shine on, and horses in their galloping flight
strike the curve of ribs.

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.

One of the most important things is to honor your story. Every origin story is so particular. It’s about finding the particulars. Every origin story has a place and a place that it shines. So it’s important as you move through memory to realize when you're making memories, and how are you making them. Writing poetry is part of making them with attention, but everybody has a story. You know, honor it. Honor it, even the hard parts. I think that was one of the first things that poetry taught me was that I went to poetry to try to, I think, in the beginning, try to find a place of refuge, and then poetry taught me that all parts matter.