Joy Harjo's Blog, page 5
February 26, 2013
Maverick Muscogee Nation News Column Feb 2013
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February 21, 2013
"Get Up Offa That Thing"
Back to the last day at my Ucross writing studio, after my last workout with Radha Blank. The closest gym is in Sheridan, thirty miles away, so we made our own workouts that have included many kinds of dance (mostly done to soul, funk, r and b and hip hop), workout, step, stretches, dips, and ending with those dreaded planks. In three weeks we've lost some weight, can do stretches that were
Names
Read that bottle nose call their loved ones by names. I don't believe that's a unique phenomenon to dolphins or humans.
February 18, 2013
The Wilds of Discipline
More snow, more wind, but I am finding the story--Everything I've written in these last two weeks I abandoned yesterday. I start again. That's how it often works when creating any new story, song, dance, painting...Discipline and wildness meet in creativity.
February 13, 2013
Wake Up
When we enter this world with waking consciousness we put on our earthly suit of clothes. We move slower, but the principles are the same. Sometimes I like to move through this conscious realm as if I were dreaming. In dreaming we are more in touch with how our thoughts create immediately and dynamically. If I think myself into the heart of the song, there I am, or a plant, or a knot of pain that
February 12, 2013
Doubt Monsters
Dealing with the doubt monsters this morning."Once the world was perfect, Granddaughter, and we were happy in that world. Then we took it for granted. Discontent began a small rumble in the earthly mind.Then Doubt pushed through with its spiked head and all manner of demon thoughts jumped through.We destroyed the world we had been given. Each stone of jealousy, each stone of fear, greed, and envy
February 11, 2013
Monday
Nothing like sleep on a windy, snowy night then waking to a bright sun made even brighter after a dark and difficult journey. Therein is the story of life, this flicker back and forth between shadow and light.
February 7, 2013
Move It
I realize this morning as I write my play that I will have to ride a beat to get my protagonist's voice down in poetry...like driving a car with the top down on a path through the heart.
February 6, 2013
Crab Aesthetics
This morning thinking of the island of Aitutaki, after hearing of the tsunami in the Solomon Islands. I spent one of my best days in this world there. We were let off at one of those proverbial South Pacific islands: white sand, coconut palms--an emerald jewel in a turquoise sea. We gathered shells, the most beautiful we could find. We each made little piles. Soon, the shells sprouted crabs and
February 1, 2013
Morning Prayer
Sun climbs into the sky with a baby
On his back. He wants to show his daughter
The creation story, how all the colors of dawn
Become humans, plants, animals and winds.
There is nothing quite like this light anywhere else
In the universe he tells her.
Earth is one of the most beautiful beings yet much suffering
Is brought to bare here.
As the sun lifts up on his elbows to peer over the edge, all
On his back. He wants to show his daughter
The creation story, how all the colors of dawn
Become humans, plants, animals and winds.
There is nothing quite like this light anywhere else
In the universe he tells her.
Earth is one of the most beautiful beings yet much suffering
Is brought to bare here.
As the sun lifts up on his elbows to peer over the edge, all
