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Cloud Runner: Poems
Not yet published
Expected 13 Oct 26- GenresPoetryNative American
Kindle Edition
Expected publication October 13, 2026
About the author
Joy Harjo
109 books2,064 followersBio Joy Harjo
Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. She has released four award-winning CD's of original music and won a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist of the Year. She performs nationally and internationally solo and with her band, The Arrow Dynamics. She has appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, in venues in every major U.S. city and internationally. Most recently she performed We Were There When Jazz Was Invented at the Chan Centre at UBC in Vancouver, BC, and appeared at the San Miguel Writer’s Conference in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her one-woman show, Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light, which features guitarist Larry Mitchell premiered in Los Angeles in 2009, with recent performances at Joe’s Pub in New York City, LaJolla Playhouse as part of the Native Voices at the Autry, and the University of British Columbia. Her seven books of poetry include such well-known titles as How We Became Human- New and Selected Poems and She Had Some Horses. Her awards include the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. She was recently awarded 2011 Artist of the Year from the Mvskoke Women’s Leadership Initiative, and a Rasmuson US Artists Fellowship. She is a founding board member and treasurer of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Harjo writes a column Comings and Goings for her tribal newspaper, the Muscogee Nation News. Soul Talk, Song Language, Conversations with Joy Harjo was recently released from Wesleyan University Press. Crazy Brave, a memoir is her newest publication from W.W. Norton, and a new album of music is being produced by the drummer/producer Barrett Martin. She is at work on a new shows: We Were There When Jazz Was Invented, a musical story that proves southeastern indigenous tribes were part of the origins of American music. She lives in the Mvskoke Nation of Oklahoma.
Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. She has released four award-winning CD's of original music and won a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist of the Year. She performs nationally and internationally solo and with her band, The Arrow Dynamics. She has appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, in venues in every major U.S. city and internationally. Most recently she performed We Were There When Jazz Was Invented at the Chan Centre at UBC in Vancouver, BC, and appeared at the San Miguel Writer’s Conference in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her one-woman show, Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light, which features guitarist Larry Mitchell premiered in Los Angeles in 2009, with recent performances at Joe’s Pub in New York City, LaJolla Playhouse as part of the Native Voices at the Autry, and the University of British Columbia. Her seven books of poetry include such well-known titles as How We Became Human- New and Selected Poems and She Had Some Horses. Her awards include the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. She was recently awarded 2011 Artist of the Year from the Mvskoke Women’s Leadership Initiative, and a Rasmuson US Artists Fellowship. She is a founding board member and treasurer of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Harjo writes a column Comings and Goings for her tribal newspaper, the Muscogee Nation News. Soul Talk, Song Language, Conversations with Joy Harjo was recently released from Wesleyan University Press. Crazy Brave, a memoir is her newest publication from W.W. Norton, and a new album of music is being produced by the drummer/producer Barrett Martin. She is at work on a new shows: We Were There When Jazz Was Invented, a musical story that proves southeastern indigenous tribes were part of the origins of American music. She lives in the Mvskoke Nation of Oklahoma.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thanks to NetGalley & W.W. Norton & Company for the ARC!
Joy Harjo’s Cloud Runner is a tender reflection on what it means to lose someone—whether grief compromises or comprises beauty.
As a poet, Harjo has always been comfortable with a directness and transparency that feels boldly disinterested in posturing. Her poetics are centered in life as it is, and she favors attention over interpretation. Cloud Runner, a tribute to Harjo's late daughter, Rainy Dawn Ortiz, is a heartbreaking thematic variation because it’s about life as it isn’t. This is a collection where its form is its own resistance—poems about how poetry is inadequate for grief.
The first piece, “This is Not a Poem, It is a Cry,” sets the tone when the speaker immediately eschews embellishment in favor of bluntness:
Grief ruptures the book before it even begins, and the speaker spends the remaining poems circling questions of meaning. The metaphors here are overplayed, but in Harjo’s hands, the ubiquitous dance between light and dark doesn’t feel like a cliché. The speaker can yearn for a sunrise without it feeling like a trope. Loss is the fulfillment of fear, so grief has no room for pretense.
To some extent, Harjo situates her personal loss within the pain of fights for Native sovereignty, and she finds closure in open-endedness. Colonized history has tried to erase Indians, but they persevere and persist even as their identities change shape. Adaptation offers something richer than mere survival. Similarly, the speaker begins to dwell on the motif of her daughter as water in flux—sometimes cloud, sometimes tears, sometimes river, sometimes the vapor of a rainbow. Nobody is ever really gone, but our relationship to them changes alongside their form.
Cloud Runner is a call to remember, but more importantly, it is an assertion that memory is an active, life-giving act. People live beyond death, sometimes as the pain of a phantom limb (“The Sacred Art of Mothering”), and sometimes as a rain shower growing the next generation. It is good to grieve because, as Joy Harjo gently reminds us, it is a generative act.
Joy Harjo’s Cloud Runner is a tender reflection on what it means to lose someone—whether grief compromises or comprises beauty.
As a poet, Harjo has always been comfortable with a directness and transparency that feels boldly disinterested in posturing. Her poetics are centered in life as it is, and she favors attention over interpretation. Cloud Runner, a tribute to Harjo's late daughter, Rainy Dawn Ortiz, is a heartbreaking thematic variation because it’s about life as it isn’t. This is a collection where its form is its own resistance—poems about how poetry is inadequate for grief.
The first piece, “This is Not a Poem, It is a Cry,” sets the tone when the speaker immediately eschews embellishment in favor of bluntness:
It has been four days.
I have lost my girl.
Some things do not belong in words.
Grief ruptures the book before it even begins, and the speaker spends the remaining poems circling questions of meaning. The metaphors here are overplayed, but in Harjo’s hands, the ubiquitous dance between light and dark doesn’t feel like a cliché. The speaker can yearn for a sunrise without it feeling like a trope. Loss is the fulfillment of fear, so grief has no room for pretense.
To some extent, Harjo situates her personal loss within the pain of fights for Native sovereignty, and she finds closure in open-endedness. Colonized history has tried to erase Indians, but they persevere and persist even as their identities change shape. Adaptation offers something richer than mere survival. Similarly, the speaker begins to dwell on the motif of her daughter as water in flux—sometimes cloud, sometimes tears, sometimes river, sometimes the vapor of a rainbow. Nobody is ever really gone, but our relationship to them changes alongside their form.
Cloud Runner is a call to remember, but more importantly, it is an assertion that memory is an active, life-giving act. People live beyond death, sometimes as the pain of a phantom limb (“The Sacred Art of Mothering”), and sometimes as a rain shower growing the next generation. It is good to grieve because, as Joy Harjo gently reminds us, it is a generative act.
June 6, 2026
Joy Harjo’s poetry collection, Cloud Runner, was an unexpected read for me as I’m trying to be better about the arcs that i slowly but steadily start to accumulate and leave for last minute 🙈
First of all, the cover — vibes! 🌈
Second, it took me a little rereading here and there but I didn’t expect to be in my feels about a mother-daughter book of elegy of sorts where Harjo recounts the loss of her daughter 🥺
Now I understand the plea, the grief and the prayer that the poet gives us readers so tenderly as the endings to each of her poems serves as the aftermath of living that moment of need, full of love, and curious in its meditation and even more immense in its generosity of words.
I wish I could quote some lines but alas this one comes out sometime later this year in October so that just may have to wait 💙
Rainy Dawn Ortiz is the child’s name and what a beautiful ode of remembrance to her from mother to daughter — hope is a revelation worth witnessing! ✨
First of all, the cover — vibes! 🌈
Second, it took me a little rereading here and there but I didn’t expect to be in my feels about a mother-daughter book of elegy of sorts where Harjo recounts the loss of her daughter 🥺
Now I understand the plea, the grief and the prayer that the poet gives us readers so tenderly as the endings to each of her poems serves as the aftermath of living that moment of need, full of love, and curious in its meditation and even more immense in its generosity of words.
I wish I could quote some lines but alas this one comes out sometime later this year in October so that just may have to wait 💙
Rainy Dawn Ortiz is the child’s name and what a beautiful ode of remembrance to her from mother to daughter — hope is a revelation worth witnessing! ✨
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Just absolute stand-still-in-your-tracks type of poems following the loss of Harjo's daughter. Some poems center grief, some center family history and nature as creation story, and some shine a light on the power of song, poetry, and ceremony. I adored this. I was able to read this on my first ever trip to the west, and the way that the sun shone there and the rain fell and the winds carried me away really impacted me and my enjoyment of her poems. It has been years since I first read a Joy Harjo poem, and this was a wonderful reminder of her skill and my need to read more of her work.
*Thank you W. W. Norton & Company for the e-arc of this collection. <3
*Thank you W. W. Norton & Company for the e-arc of this collection. <3
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
A beautifully devastating collection of poems on grief. Harjo wrote these poems while grieving the loss of her daughter but the poems span many kinds of loss. Loss of loved ones, loss of culture, loss of safety, and loss of societal decency; all clouding life.
Harjo also reminds readers of the beauty still found every day in our lost loved ones and our surroundings.
“In Pueblo mythology those who leave this earth become the ancestors who bring rain clouds. My beloved raincloud I love you forever and ever”
I received an advanced reader copy, courtesy of NerGalley, in exchange for this honest review.
Harjo also reminds readers of the beauty still found every day in our lost loved ones and our surroundings.
“In Pueblo mythology those who leave this earth become the ancestors who bring rain clouds. My beloved raincloud I love you forever and ever”
I received an advanced reader copy, courtesy of NerGalley, in exchange for this honest review.
July 23, 2026
Oh, how I love Joy Harjo’s poetry. This collection was so visceral and heart-wrenching and beautiful in its grief. The poem, “Nothing Left”, had me crying as I read it. This is a collection that will stick with you a long time after reading, a beautiful tribute to Harjo’s late daughter. Including “Nothing Left”, the other standouts in this collection for me were “The Sacred Art of Mothering”, “ECOLOCATION>>>>> ecolocation>>>>>”, “Eat”, and “Lullaby”.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC, and to Harjo for this incredible book!
Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC, and to Harjo for this incredible book!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Joy Harjo is a poet who needs no introduction, and this collection of poems is an extraordinary work.
The reader journeys through Harjo’s own grief—of losing her daughter—and through the hope and belonging that becomes known through her grief.
I especially loved “An Ordinary Morning,” Gathering the Light,” and “Holding On.”
Thank you Net Galley and W. W. Norton & Company for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
The reader journeys through Harjo’s own grief—of losing her daughter—and through the hope and belonging that becomes known through her grief.
I especially loved “An Ordinary Morning,” Gathering the Light,” and “Holding On.”
Thank you Net Galley and W. W. Norton & Company for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Outstanding and breath-taking. Joy Harjo will always be the Poet Laureate of the heart. Here she shares the depths of her grief and remembrance of her daughter. Here she shares how her culture, traditions and the natural world sustain her with beauty and reflection. Will read again and again. Thank you. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher, and a shout out to Ron Charles who was graciously permitted to include an excerpt in his Substack column.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
have always appreciated Joy Harjo’s work. I knew this one was a hit for me as soon as I found myself reaching for a pen and paper to jot down quotes. Harjo puts grief into a frame that rings true for me. I found myself reading it planning to buy a copy for a friend. Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for the chance to read it.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Cloud Runner is a heart-rending collection largely centered around the loss of Harjo's daughter. Thoughts, dreams, and ruminations on grief, motherhood, human connection, and the spirit world all coalesce and give a voice to universal feelings that are often indescribable-- something Harjo has always been skilled at doing.
July 24, 2026
This was such a beautiful and heartbreaking collection of poetry. It explores grief, love, loss, and what it feels like to search for words when there just aren’t any answers for death. It was incredibly emotional and captured so many complicated feelings in a way that felt honest and real.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I am not much of a poetry fan, but when it comes to Joy Harjo, I make an exception.
This is a lovely book full of love and grief and the emotions a mother goes through after losing a child. A wonderful read for all.
This is a lovely book full of love and grief and the emotions a mother goes through after losing a child. A wonderful read for all.
June 19, 2026
What a beautiful, tragic, important collection of poetry— speaking to grief, love, loss, and finding words when there are no explanations for death. I will definitely be adding this collection to my classroom when it’s published!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Heart-breaking collection of poems. Harjo writes a power collection of grief and loss. Thank you to Netgalley and W.W. Norton for the eARC!
July 21, 2026
I started crying four lines into the first poem. An unbelievable collection of poetry.
June 22, 2026
This was such a beautiful read at times. The way Harjo put her grief in words was powerful and so incredibly sad times. This was an incredible collection of poems. I will definitely purchase a physical copy.
*Thank you, NetGalley, for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.*
*Thank you, NetGalley, for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.*
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews