An American Sunrise Quotes

“Be who you are, even if it kills you.

It will. Over and over again.
Even as you live.

Break my heart, why don't you?”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“The heart is a fist. It pockets prayer or holds rage.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“I am a star falling from the night sky
I need you to catch me
I am a rainbow lifting from a dark cloud
I need you to see me”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“We become lost,
Unsteady.
Take a deep breath,
Pray.
You will not always be lost.
You are right here,
In your time,
In your place.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“Once there were songs for everything, Songs for planting, for growing, for harvesting, For eating, getting drunk, falling asleep, For sunrise, birth, mind-break, and war. For death (those are the heaviest songs and they Have to be pried from the earth with shovels of grief). Now all we hear are falling-in-love songs and Falling apart after falling in love songs.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“I never got to wash my mother's body when she died.
I return to take care of her in memory.
That's how I make peace when things are left undone.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“No. I was not okay.
And neither was James Baldwin though his essays
Were perfect spinning platters of comprehension of the fight
To assert humanness in a black and white world.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“All for that welcome home dance,
The most favorite of all--
when everyone finds their way back together
to dance, eat and celebrate.
And tell story after story
of how they fought and played
in the story wheel
and how no one
was ever really lost at all.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“There are always flowers,
Love cries, or blood.

Someone is always leaving
By exile, death, or heartbreak.

The heart is a fist.
It pockets prayer or holds rage.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“WASHING MY MOTHER’S BODY I never got to wash my mother’s body when she died. I return to take care of her in memory. That’s how I make peace when things are left undone. I go back and open the door. I step in to make my ritual. To do what should have been done, what needs to be fixed so that my spirit can move on, So that the children and grandchildren are not caught in a knot Of regret they do not understand.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“We cannot own anyone else, people, the lands, or resources. We are here to care for each other.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“Be who you are, even if it kills you.
It will. Over and over again.
Even as you live.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“Nobody goes anywhere
though we are always leaving and returning. It's a ceremony.
Sunrise occurs everywhere, in lizard time, human time, or a fern
uncurling time.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“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.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“I grow tired of the heartache
Of every small and large war
Passed from generation
To generation.
But it is not in me to give up.
I was taught to give honor to the house of the warriors
Which cannot exist without the house of the peacemakers.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“History will always find you, and wrap you
In its thousand arms.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“On May 28, 1830, President Andrew Jackson unlawfully signed the Indian Removal Act to force move southeastern peoples from our homelands to the West. We were rounded up with what we could carry. We were forced to leave behind houses, printing presses, stores, cattle, schools, pianos, ceremonial grounds, tribal towns, churches. We witnessed immigrants walking into our homes with their guns, Bibles, household goods and families, taking what had been ours, as we were surrounded by soldiers and driven away like livestock at gunpoint.

There were many trails of tears of tribal nations all over North America of indigenous peoples who were forcibly removed from their homelands by government forces.

The indigenous peoples who are making their way up from the southern hemisphere are a continuation of the Trail of Tears.

May we all find the way home.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“Until the passage of the Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978, it was illegal for Native citizens to practice our cultures. This included the making and sharing of songs and stories. Songs and stories in one culture are poetry and prose in another. They are intrinsic to cultural sovereignty. To write or create as a Native person was essentially illegal.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“To the destroyers, Earth is not a person. They will want more until there is no more to steal.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“I was a star falling from the night sky I needed you to catch me I was a rainbow lifting from a dark cloud I needed you to see me You keep your eyes to the ground”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“DIRECTIONS TO YOU Rainy Dawn Ortiz Follow them, stop, turn around Go the other way. Left, right, Mine, yours. We become lost, Unsteady. Take a deep breath, Pray. You will not always be lost. You are right here, In your time, In your place. 1. North Star, guidance as we look up To the brightest white Hoping it leads you to where you want to go, Hoping that it knows where you should be. We find our peace here in the white, Gather our strength, our breath, and learn how to be. 2. East The sun rises, Red, Morning heat on our face even on the coldest morning. The sun creates life, Energy, Nourishment. Gather strength, pull it in Be right where you are. 3. South Butterfly flits Spreads yellow beauty. We have come to this moment in time Step by step, We don’t always listen to directions, We let the current carry us, Push us, Force us along the path. We stumble, Get up and keep moving. 4. West Sunsets, brings Darkness, Brings black. We find solitude, Time to take in breath and Pray. Even in darkness you Can be found. Call out even in a whisper Or whimper, You will be heard. To find, To be found, To be understood, To be seen, Heard, felt. You are, Breath. You are, Memory. You are, Touch. You are, Right here.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“I leave you to your ceremony of grieving
Which is also of celebration
Given when an honored humble one
Leaves behind a trail of happiness
In the dark of human tribulation.
None of us is above the other
In this story of forever.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“It was impossible to make it through the tragedy
Without poetry. What are we without winds becoming words?”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“The songs of the guardians of silence are the most powerful—”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“Sunrise occurs everywhere, in lizard time, human time, or a fern uncurling time. We instinctually reach for light food, we digest it, make love, art or trouble of it.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“AN AMERICAN SUNRISE We were running out of breath, as we ran out to meet ourselves, We Were surfacing the edge of our ancestors’ fights, and ready to Strike It was difficult to lose days in the Indian bar if you were Straight. Easy if you played pool and drank to remember to forget. We Made plans to be professional—and did. And some of us could Sing When we drove to the edge of the mountains, with a drum. We Made sense of our beautiful crazed lives under the starry stars. Sin Was invented by the Christians, as was the Devil, we sang. We Were the heathens, but needed to be saved from them: Thin Chance. We knew we were all related in this story, a little Gin Will clarify the dark, and make us all feel like dancing. We Had something to do with the origins of blues and jazz I argued with the music as I filled the jukebox with dimes in June, Forty years later and we still want justice. We are still America. We.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“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?”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“HONORING Who sings to the plants That are grown for our plates? Are they gathered lovingly In aprons or arms? Or do they suffer the fate Of the motor-driven whip Of the monster reaper? No song at all, only The sound of money Being stacked in a bank Who stitched the seams in my clothes One line after another? Was the room sweaty and dark With no hour to spare? Did she have enough to eat? Did she have a home anywhere? Or did she live on the floor? And where were the children? Or was the seamstress the child With no home of his or her own? Who sacrifices to make clothes For strangers of another country? And why? Let’s remember to thank the grower of food The picker, the driver, The sun and the rain. Let’s remember to thank each maker of stitch And layer of pattern, The dyer of color In the immense house of beauty and pain. . . . Let’s honor the maker. Let’s honor what’s made.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“FOR EARTH’S GRANDSONS Stand tall, no matter your height, how dark your skin Your spirit is all colors within You are made of the finest woven light From the iridescent love that formed your mothers, fathers Your grandparents all the way back on the spiral road— There is no end to this love It has formed your bodies Feeds your bright spirits And no matter what happens in these times of breaking— No matter dictators, the heartless, and liars No matter—you are born of those Who kept ceremonial embers burning in their hands All through the miles of relentless exile Those who sang the path through massacre All the way to sunrise You will make it through”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

“FALLING FROM THE NIGHT SKY (a song) I was a star falling from the night sky I needed you to catch me I was a rainbow lifting from a dark cloud I needed you to see me You keep your eyes to the ground Walk that line she had to you. That path of patient expectation. Keeps you true to her undoing. My heart wore flowers and a red dress. The first time we kissed You smelled of happiness and moonlight We drove the night to tenderness. When you’re here we are the sun and the moon. In the land where promises come true. When you’re here, we share imagination No explanations. It’s just me, and you. You keep your eyes to the ground Walk that line she had to you. That path of patient expectation. Keeps you true to her undoing. I am a star falling from the night sky I need you to catch me I am a rainbow lifting from a dark cloud I need you to see me”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise