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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... 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 |
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