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Author: HARJO, JOY
Matches Found: 157


Harjo, Joy    Poet's Biography
157 poems available by this author


A MAP TO THE NEXT WORLD    Poem Text    
First Line: In the last days of the fourth world I wished to make a map for those who
Subject(s): Maps


ALIVE    Poem Text    
First Line: The hum of the car
Subject(s): Native Americans; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America


ALIVE       
First Line: The hum of the car
Last Line: Side. I am free to be sung to; %I am free to sing. This woman %can cross any line
Subject(s): Native Americans


ANCHORAGE    Poem Text    
First Line: This city is made of stone, of blood, and fish
Last Line: To survive?
Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Dissenters; Ethnic Groups - United States; Exiles; Marginality, Social; Minorities - United States; Native Americans; Survival; United States - Race Relations; Estrangement; Outcasts; Indians Of America; American Indians;


AND IN THE SEASON OF NEW GRASS...       
Last Line: Between heaven and hell


ANYTHING THAT MATTERS IS HERE...       
Last Line: Years ago. See her laughing as she chases a white butterfly


ARE YOU STILL THERE'       
First Line: There are sixty-five miles


BACKWARDS       
First Line: The moon that night was thrown
Last Line: A whiteman with a knife cut pieces %away %and threw the meat%to the dogs


BIRD    Poem Text    
First Line: The moon plays horn, leaning on the shoulder of the dark universe
Subject(s): Jazz; Music & Musicians; Parker, Charlie ('bird') (1920-1955)


BIRD       
First Line: The moon plays horn, leaning on the shoulder of the dark universe
Last Line: Attempting flight home
Subject(s): Jazz; Music And Musicians; Parker, Charlie ("bird") (1920-1955)


BLACK ROOM       
First Line: She thought she woke up
Last Line: Patterns %would it be sleep?


BLEED THROUGH       
First Line: I don't believe in promises, but there you are
Last Line: Where the dead arise again %to walk in shoes of fire


BLUE ELLIPTIC       
First Line: All the lights in the house are burning
Last Line: Did you see


BOOK OF MYTHS       
First Line: When I entered the book of myths
Last Line: Stand up, brush off the lovely skin like a satin blouse %anddance with foolish grace to heaven


CALL IT FEAR       
First Line: There is this edge where shadows
Last Line: From the radio. Battery worn-down but he voices %talking backwards


CONNECTION       
First Line: A hawk touches down
Last Line: And you go home to red earth %when you see a hawk %crossing wires %touching down


CREATION STORY       
First Line: I'm not afraid of love
Last Line: Transfix us with love


CRYSTAL LAKE    Poem Text    
First Line: I caught crawdads and let them go. Baited hooks with my
Subject(s): Baby Boom Generation; Women


CRYSTAL LAKE       
First Line: I caught crawdads and let them go. Baited hooks with my
Last Line: Caught, over fish who were as long as rainbows after the coming storm
Subject(s): Baby Boom Generation; Women


CUCHILLO       
Last Line: Cuchillo %dreams %are the living bones that want out %of this voice dangling %that calls itself %kni


CUCHILLO       
First Line: Cuchillo %sky %is blood filling up my belly
Last Line: That calls itself %knife %(cuchillo)


DAWN APPEARS WITH BUTTERFLIES       
First Line: I was on my way to tuba city, located in northern arizona, the heartland
Last Line: I'm sure he laughed with us. That's the way he was


DEER DANCER    Poem Text    
First Line: Nearly everyone had left that bar in the middle of winter
Subject(s): Bars & Bartenders; Dancing & Dancers; Pubs; Taverns; Saloons


DEER DANCER       
First Line: Nearly everyone had left that bar in the middle of winter
Last Line: Her fawn a blessing of meat, the ancestors who never left
Subject(s): Bars And Bartenders; Dancing And Dancers


DON'T BOTHER THE EARTH SPIRIT...       
Last Line: There? That is the only one who ever escaped


DROWNING HORSES       
First Line: She says she is going to kill
Last Line: Night air approaches, the galloping %other-life. %no sound. %no sound


EAGLE POEM    Poem Text    
First Line: To pray you open your whole self
Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970


EAGLE POEM       
First Line: To pray you open your whole self
Last Line: We pray that it will be done. %in beauty %in beauty
Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970


EITHER A SNAIL'S MOIST WEB       
Last Line: It is all that %I have


EXPLOSION       
First Line: The highway near okemah, oklahoma exploded
Last Line: And will be rocked awake %past their bodies %to see who they have become


FIELD OF MIRACLES       
First Line: It's possible to understand the world from studying a leaf
Last Line: It's also possible to travel the whole globe and learn nothing


FISHING       
First Line: A few weeks before he died I wrote my friend the muscogee poet, louis oliver
Last Line: This is how I kept it


FLOOD       
First Line: It has been years since I'd seen the watermonster, the snake who
Last Line: It was beginning to rain in oklahoma, the rain that would flood the world


FOR ALVA BENSON, AND FOR THOSE WHO HAVE LEARNED TO SPEAK       
First Line: And the ground spoke when she was born
Last Line: And the ground spinning beneath us %goes on talking


FOR ANNA MAE PICTOU AQUASH, WHOSE SPIRIT IS PRESENT HERE AND IN THE       
First Line: Beneath a sky blurred with mist and wind
Last Line: We have just begun to perceive the amazed world the ghost dancers entered %crazily, beautifully


FRIDAY BEFORE THE LONG WEEKEND       
First Line: You come in here
Last Line: But cry out goddamn goddamn %to stones %and to other deathless voices %that I hope will carry %us al


GRACE    Poem Text    
First Line: I think of wind and her wild ways the year we had nothing to lose and lost it anyway
Subject(s): Native Americans; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America


GRACE       
First Line: I think of the wind and her wild ways the year we had nothing to lose and
Last Line: People. We have seen it


HEALING ANIMAL    Poem Text    
First Line: On this day when you have needed to sleep forever
Subject(s): Coltrane, John (1926-1967); Jazz; Music & Musicians; Singing & Singers; Songs


HEALING ANIMAL       
First Line: On this day when you have needed to sleep forever
Last Line: And you will sing forever
Subject(s): Coltrane, John (1926-1967); Jazz; Music And Musicians; Singing And Singers


HEARTBEAT       
First Line: Noni daylight is afraid
Last Line: It is not the moon, or the pistol in her lap %but a fierce anger %that will free her


I CAN HEAR THE SIZZLE OF NEWBORN STARS...       
Last Line: As dust or breath in the face of stars, in the shifting pattern of %winds


I DISCOVER WHERE GIANT BUTTERFLIES...       
Last Line: They call beautiful


I DON'T IMAGINE THE TURQUOISE BRACELET...       
Last Line: Red scarf around my neck as I urge my pretty horse home


I GIVE YOU BACK    Poem Text    
First Line: I release you, my beautiful and terrible
Subject(s): Ethnic Groups - United States; Loss; Minorities - United States; Peace; United States - Race Relations


I GIVE YOU BACK       
First Line: I release you, my beautiful and terrible
Last Line: I am alive and you are so afraid of dying
Subject(s): Ethnic Groups - United States; Loss; Minorities - United States; Peace; U.s. - Race Relations


I HAVE LOST MY WAY MANY TIMES...       
Last Line: Beautiful than I could ever believe


I SEE THE FLASH OF SILVER BREATHS...       
Last Line: Place of many horses


ICE HORSES       
First Line: These are the ones who escape
Last Line: So close that you have become %a part of them, %an ice horse%galloping %into fire


IF ALL EVENTS ARE RELATED, THEN WHAT STORY DOES A VOLCANO...       
Last Line: Namics, makes wings. The answer is like rushing wind: simple %faith


IF WINTER DESCRIBES THE FROZEN ANGLES OF THIS SANDY WASH...       
Last Line: Did we ever make it home?


IF YOU LOOK WITH THE MIND OF THE SWIRLING...       
Last Line: At the edge of the world, laughing


IN A MISTY DAWN AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD...       
Last Line: Morning star and his relationship to it, as he stands at the center %of miracles


IN WINTER IT IS EASIER TO SEE WHAT MY DEATH...       
Last Line: There, disappearing into the misty, spotted rocks


INSOMNIA AND THE SEVEN STEPS TO GRACE    Poem Text    
First Line: At dawn the panther of the heavens peers over the edge of the world
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


INSOMNIA AND THE SEVEN STEPS TO GRACE       
First Line: I think of bell's theorem which states that all actions have a ripple effect
Last Line: I imagined the ripple as it began in that small studio and radiated out and back again


INVISIBLE FISH SWIM THIS GHOST OCEAN NOW...       
Last Line: Going to the store


IT IS AN HONOR TO WALK WHERE ALL AROUND ME...       
Last Line: Beautiful at the center of the world


IT'S RAINING IN HONOLULU       
First Line: There is a small mist at the brow of the mountain
Last Line: We will plant songs where there were curses


IT'S TRUE THE LANDSCAPE FORMS THE MIND...       
Last Line: Blues, or close to the sound of a navajo woman singing early in %the morning


JEMEZ       
First Line: Sometimes it is like
Last Line: But coming toward you %are jemez mountains %opened red %likethe sun going down %against %soft earth


KANSAS CITY       
First Line: Early morning over silver tracks
Last Line: And to noni daylight %standing near the tracks %waving %at the last train to leave %kansas city


LATE SUMMER LEAVING       
First Line: I woke up and turned on the light
Last Line: I watch it return in you %and say one last song to return home on


LEAVING       
First Line: Four o'clock this morning there was a call
Last Line: The soft skin of the body's landscape. And I dreamed %of bear, and a thousand mile escape homeward


LETTER FROM THE END OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY       
First Line: I was in a downtown chicago hotel room when I called home, as I do
Last Line: He told me of his friend, another taxi driver who was killed in similar circumstances as the albuque


MAP TO THE NEXT WORLD       
First Line: In the last days of the fourth world I wished to make a map for those who
Last Line: You must make your own map
Subject(s): Maps


MERCY       
First Line: Mercy %on this morning where in the air is a flash
Last Line: Become a bayonet of sound, hands of fire %to lead you to yourself %until you cry %mercy


MOENCOPI RISE STUNS ME INTO PERFECT RELATIONSHIP...       
Last Line: Dinosaurs, climbing toward the next century


MOONLIGHT       
First Line: I know when the sun is in china
Last Line: The last time I saw her was in the arms %of another sky'


MORNING PRAYERS       
First Line: I have missed the guardian spirit
Last Line: Who witnessed every battle %every small struggle


MOTION       
First Line: We get frantic
Last Line: Not in words, but in the motion %set off by them, by %the simple flight of crow %and by us %in our l


MOURNING SONG       
First Line: In the city in which I live are many homeless people. They congregate
Last Line: Knowing him the way I did I couldn't help but think he'd made a choice to be a modern warrior, and c


MY CHEEK IS FLAT AGAINST MEMORY...       
Last Line: Name, as strange as monsters in your sleep


MY HOUSE IS THE RED EARTH    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Home


MY HOUSE IS THE RED EARTH...       
Last Line: #name?


MYTH OF BLACKBIRDS       
First Line: I believe love is the strongest force in this world, though it doesn't often
Last Line: Whereas lovelessness emphasizes the absence of relativity


NAMING       
First Line: I called my sisters to dress for the stomp dance
Last Line: The dark to dawn %and leads us faithfully to the stars


NAMING       
First Line: I think of names that have profoundly changed the direction of disaster
Last Line: I welcomed her


NANDIA       
First Line: Over mccartys
Last Line: I drive this road again %my children older %and this ache %this trembling ache %haunts me endlessly


NAUTILAUS       
First Line: This is how I cut myself open
Last Line: Where ocean has carved out %warm sea animals, %and has driven the night %dark and in me %like a laby


NEAR ROUND ROCK IS A POINT OF BALANCE...       
Last Line: Occurring in time and space, as sheep, a few goats, graze, keep %watch nearby


NEAR SHIPROCK FIVE HORSES STAND AT THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD...       
Last Line: Sands where a pattern for survival is fiercely stated


NIGHT OUT    Poem Text    
First Line: I have seen you in the palms of my hands
Subject(s): Bars & Bartenders; Native Americans; Pubs; Taverns; Saloons; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America


NIGHT OUT       
First Line: I have seen you in the palms of my hands
Last Line: You have paid the cover charge thousands of times over %withyour lives %and now you are afraid %you
Subject(s): Bars And Bartenders; Native Americans


NINE BELOW       
First Line: Across the frozen bering sea is the invisible border


NO    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: Yes, that was me you saw shaking with bravery, with a government
Subject(s): Politics & Government; War


NO       
First Line: Yes, that was me you saw shaking with bravery, with a government
Last Line: No. We had no quarrel with each other
Subject(s): Politics; War


NO HULI    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: We failed a little
Subject(s): Perseverance


NORTHERN LIGHTS       
First Line: I was invited up north once to a small college off lake superior
Last Line: The power of it almost destroyed a man and his family, yet was also their survival


ONE CEDAR TREE       
First Line: The cedar tree outside the window
Last Line: And I eat, breathe, and pray to some strange god %who could be a cedar tree %outside the window


OTHER SIDE OF YELLOW TO BLUE       
First Line: We cannot escape reckoning. We follow the yellow tracks, leading us
Last Line: Here's praise for mccoy tyner, joe hendersen, ron carter and elvin jones


PATH TO THE MILKY WAY LEADS THROUGH LOS ANGELES       
First Line: There are strangers above me, below me and all around me and we are all
Last Line: But like crow I collect the shine of anything beautiful I can find


PERHAPS THE WORLD ENDS HERE    Poem Text    
First Line: The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter waht, we must eat / to live


PERHAPS THE WORLD ENDS HERE       
First Line: The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live
Last Line: Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the las


PERHAPS THE WORLD ENDS HERE       
First Line: The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter waht, we must eat %to live
Last Line: Perphas the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laugh- %ing and crying, eating of the
Subject(s): Food And Eating; Judgment Day


PETROGLYPH       
First Line: Juane quick-to-see smith's paintings are rich with levels of dream stuff
Last Line: I began as a painter


PETROGLYPH       
First Line: Everyone had turned off their televisions to watch the meteor shower
Last Line: With grandchildren in front of them, forming the border of the composition


PLACE THE MUSICIAN BECAME A BEAR       
First Line: I heard about jim pepper years before I finally met him in brooklyn
Last Line: Or when I walk the streets of new york and hear the music of the subways


POEM I JUST WROTE       
First Line: The poem I just wrote is not real
Last Line: And neither are the ghosts %of old lovers who smile at me %from the jukebox


POST-COLONIAL TALE       
First Line: Every day is a reenactment of the creation story. We emerge from
Last Line: Us, drums with us, loves us [or, of rising up]


POWER OF NEVER       
First Line: Never is the most powerful word in the english language, or perhaps any lan-
Last Line: It won't work. It never will
Subject(s): Language


PROMISE       
First Line: The spring before my granddaughter krista's birth I was a passenger on
Last Line: When they gathered before krista's birth I knew they were with us, blessing her


PROMISE OF BLUE HORSES       
First Line: The heart is constructed of a promise to love
Last Line: #name?


RACING THE FLAMBOYANT PLAIN OF SUNSET...       
Last Line: Anticipate that gorgeous leap into knowing everything


RAIN       
First Line: Bobby flew out from his body
Last Line: Something has been let loose in rain; %it is teaching us to love


RAINY DAY    Poem Text    
First Line: I can still close my eyes and open them four floors up
Last Line: On like the rest of us, this immense journey, for love, for rain
Subject(s): Baby Boom Generation; Women


RAINY DAY       
First Line: I can still close my eyes and open them four floors up
Last Line: Rest of us, this immense journey, for love, for rain
Subject(s): Baby Boom Generation; Women


REAL REVOLUTION IS LOVE       
First Line: I argue with roberto on the slick-tiled patio


RECONCILIATION, A PRAYER       
First Line: We gather at the shore of all knowledge
Last Line: Of the east because returned to us is the spirit of all that we love


REMEMBER    Poem Text    
First Line: Remember the sky that you were born under
Last Line: Remember.
Subject(s): Native Americans - Genealogy & Heritage


RESURRECTION       
First Line: Esteli %this mountain town means something


RETURNING       
First Line: I don't know
Last Line: Said it. Or maybe you are my own life %scheming desperately to climb %back in


SANTE FE       
First Line: The wind blows lilacs out of the east
Last Line: Invention of this story, the wind is blowing


SCARLET BLUFFS GATHER HERE TO DRINK AND WATCH...       
Last Line: Ancient mountain lion who shifts his bones on a starry branch


SEPTEMBER MOON       
First Line: Last night she called and told me
Last Line: We are alive. The woman of the moon looking %at us, and we looking at her, acknowledging %each other


SHE HAD SOME HORSES    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
Subject(s): Native Americans; Horses; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America


SHE REMEMBERS THE FUTURE       
First Line: We are closer than
Last Line: Or should you ride colored horses %into the cutting edge of the sky %to know %that we're alive %we a


SKELETON OF WINTER       
First Line: These winter days
Last Line: But an intricate part %of this web of motion, %meaning: earth, sky, stars circling %my heart %centri


SONATA FOR THE INVISIBLE       
First Line: My son called me once at three in the morning
Last Line: My son's name means lover of horses


SONG FOR THANTOG       
First Line: Thantog
Last Line: Than to so stand up singing %with no blade edge %against ourselves %other than voices %out of the fi


SONG FOR THE DEER AND MYSELF TO RETURN ON    Poem Text    
First Line: This morning when I looked out the roof window
Subject(s): Deer; Environment; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation


SONG FOR THE DEER AND MYSELF TO RETURN ON       
First Line: This morning when I looked out the roof window
Last Line: And nearly too late to go home
Subject(s): Deer; Environment


SONG OF THE HOUSE IN THE HOUSE       
First Line: I believe an architectural structure is interactive
Last Line: If a particular house or room is crucial to our understanding love, that place too grows attached to


SONG OF THE HOUSE IN THE HOUSE       
First Line: I've seen a ghost house in the street
Last Line: Though the war never ended


SONGLINE OF DAWN    Poem Text    
First Line: We are ascending through the dawn
Subject(s): Air Travel; Religion; Ancestors & Ancestry; Theology


SONGS FROM THE HOUSE OF DEATH    Poem Text    
First Line: From the house of death there is rain
Subject(s): Death; Love - Loss Of; Relationships; Dead, The


SONGS FROM THE HOUSE OF DEATH       
First Line: From the house of death there is rain
Last Line: You left behind. I hold you %there
Subject(s): Death; Love - Loss Of; Relationships


STORIES ARE OUR WEALTH...       
Last Line: Lambs, heavy with the weight of corn milk


STRANGE FRUIT    Poem Text    
First Line: I was out in the early evening, taking a walk in the fields to think about this
Subject(s): African Americans; Jazz; Lynching; Music & Musicians; Racism; Negroes; American Blacks; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry


STRANGE FRUIT       
First Line: I was out in the early evening, taking a walk in the fields to think about this
Last Line: My feet betray me, dance anyway from this killing tree
Subject(s): African Americans; Jazz; Lynching; Music And Musicians; Racism


SUMMER STORM REVEALS THE DREAMING PLACE...       
Last Line: Shared with patient stones is the possibility of everything you %can't see


THE POEM I JUST WROTE    Poem Text    
First Line: The poem I just wrote is not real.
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets


THE WOMAN HANGING FROM THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR WINDOW    Poem Text    
First Line: She is the woman hanging from the 13th floor
Subject(s): Ethnic Groups - United States; Gays & Lesbians; Minorities - United States; United States - Race Relations; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men


THESE SMOKY BLUFFS ARE OLD TRAVELING COMPANIONS...       
Last Line: More than one good story, and need to understand the patience %of stones


THESE TAMARACKS PRETEND TO BE TAMARACKS...       
Last Line: Blown up from a pool of newly born planets


THIS EARTH HAS DREAMED ME...       
Last Line: To admire who she has become


THIS LAND IS A POEM OF OCHRE AND BURNT SAND...       
Last Line: Then, does anything written ever matter to the earth, wind, and %sky?


TOO FAR INTO ARIZONA       
First Line: They found him %crumbled in; a dusty boxcar
Last Line: Oklahoma will be the last song %I'll ever sing


TRANSFORMATIONS       
First Line: This poem is a letter to tell you that I


TWO HORSES       
First Line: I thought the sun breaking through sangre de cristo
Last Line: There are two moons on the horizon %and for you %I have broken loose


TWO SISTERS MEET ON HORSEBACK...       
Last Line: Horses are rose sand, with manes of ashy rock


VISION       
First Line: The rainbow touched down
Last Line: And sang. All the colors of horses %formed the rainbow, %andformed us %watching them


WE ENCOUNTER NAT KING COLE AS WE INVENT THE FUTURE    Poem Text    
First Line: Camme and I listened to nat king cole and she sweetly lay her head
Subject(s): Popular Culture - United States


WE ENCOUNTER NAT KING COLE AS WE INVENT THE FUTURE       
First Line: Camme and I listened to nat king cole and she sweetly lay her head
Last Line: Became love %suddenly
Subject(s): Popular Culture - United States


WE MUST CALL A MEETING       
First Line: I am fragile, a piece of pottery smoked from fire
Last Line: And the stars to guide us called promise


WHAT I SHOULD HAVE SAID    Poem Text    
First Line: There's nothing that says you can't
Subject(s): Native Americans; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America


WHAT I SHOULD HAVE SAID       
First Line: There's nothing that says you can't
Last Line: Clouds and wet earth %and there is no motion %either way %nolife %to speak of
Subject(s): Native Americans


WHAT MUSIC       
First Line: I would have loved you then, in
Last Line: You sweat in the winter in the north, %and you are afraid, %sweetheart


WHITE BEAR       
First Line: She begins to board the flight
Last Line: Cradle, tipping back it could go %either way %all darkness %is open to all light


WHO INVENTED DEATH AND CROWS AND IS THERE ANYTHING WE CAN DO       
First Line: When I hear crows talking, death is a central topic
Last Line: The magnetic force is attractive and can make you want to fly to the other side of the sky


WITNESS       
First Line: The indian wars never ended in this country
Last Line: We are still working on them


WOLF WARRIOR (1)       
First Line: One morning I prepared to see a friend off to washington, d.C.
Last Line: I believe in the power of words to create the world, as did the wolves who told that story to the yo


WOLF WARRIOR (2)    Poem Text    
First Line: A white butterfly speckled with pollen joined me in my prayers yester
Subject(s): Nature


WOLF WARRIOR (2)       
First Line: A white butterfly speckled with pollen joined me in my prayers yester
Last Line: Is nourishment carried by the butterfly from one flower to another, this %is an ongoing prayer for s
Subject(s): Nature


WOMAN HANGING FROM THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR WINDOW       
First Line: She is the woman hanging from the 13th floor
Last Line: Window on the east side of chicago, or as she %climbs back up to claim herself again
Subject(s): Ethnic Groups - United States; Homosexuality; Minorities - United States; U.s. - Race Relations


WOMAN WHO FELL FROM THE SKY       
First Line: Once a women fell from the sky. This woman who fell from the sky was
Last Line: Or the converse wave of gathering together


YOUR PHONE CALL AT 8 AM       
First Line: Your phone call at 8 a.M. Could
Last Line: But that's alright because %this poem isn't for you %but for me %after all