Poet Warrior Quotes

“We are all here to serve each other. At some point we have to understand that we do not need to carry a story that is unbearable. We can observe the story, which is mental; feel the story, which is physical; let the story go, which is emotional; then forgive the story, which is spiritual, after which we use the materials of it to build a house of knowledge.”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“A family is essentially a field of stories, each intricately connected. Death does not sever the connection; rather, the story expands as it continues unwinding inter-dimensionally”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“Our physical living is held together by plant sacrifice. We eat, wear, and are sheltered by plants and plant material. Nearly all of our medicines are plant-derived. We need to take time with them, get to know them. It’s as one of the elders from a nearby pueblo told me once when she came to visit. She admired the two aloe vera plants who took up a large part of the living room as they basked in the sunlight filtered through the skylight. They loved her attention. ‘These are the knowledge bearers. They are the ones we need to be listening to, not your computer, your internet that is pulling you into a world that will never feed you, only make you hungrier,’ she told me.

~Joy Harjo, from Poet Warrior”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“I feel a thick cord. It connects my spirits to a memory that I have tried to forget. I have pretended it wasn't there, and I drank or even smoked my way around it when I was younger. Then I buried the memory under accomplishment. My story is stalled here, as if the cord has choked off the rest of the story and I cannot move forward. As the story maker, I have to find a way. First, I need to speak and remember what I do not want to remember. Even now, years later, when my mother is gone, even the monster is gone, I have come to understand they do not want the haunting either. They want to move on.”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“What a wild dilemma,
how to make it to the stars on a highway slick with fear”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“My children were slick otters of joy in these rough waters of living”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“began to follow all of my thoughts and was surprised how many didn’t belong to me. And how many had threads to ancestors, relatives, strangers, even plants, elements, and animals.”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“These memories, and the stories in these words, might appear to exist in the long ago. In the short-root mind, a kind of mind of a people whose children don't even know the names of their great-grandparents, there is no past. Everything is right now. This kind of mind has its roots in the material culture, in what can be accumulated. My great-grandfather reminds me that we need to keep within the long-rooted mind. Because of the longer roots we have a larger structure of knowing from which to take on understanding.”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“Girl-Warrior was lonely
For the poetry-talk of the Old Ones.
They spoke in metaphor,
A way of language that alerted her imagination
To the presence of mystery
Where there was always a light on in the mica windows
Of her soul's house
Where knowledge did not depend on words
Of faulty human languages.”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“She taught me that there is no separation between being a poet and being a mother and a lover. All are warrior roles.”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“I feel a thick cord. It connects my spirit to a memory that I have tried to forget. I have pretended it wasn’t there, and I drank or even smoked my way around it when I was younger. Then I buried the memory under accomplishment. My story is stalled here, as if the cord has choked off the rest of the story and I cannot move forward. As the story maker, I have to find a way. First, I need to speak and remember what I do not want to remember. Even now, years later, when my mother is gone, even the monster is gone, I have come to understand they do not want the haunting either. They want to move on.”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“We take care of the songs; the songs will take care of us.”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“WE KEEP OUR VIBRATION HIGHER by prayer, by kindness, by taking care of what we were given to do, by cleaning ourselves of negative thoughts that originate within or come from others, by cleaning with water, by humility, by being in the real world, away from concrete and square buildings, by speaking only that which holds truth. ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“Let your moccasin feet take you to the encampment of the guardians who have known you before time, who will be there after time. They sit before the fire that has been there without time. Let the earth stabilize your postcolonial insecure jitters. Be respectful of the small insects, birds, and animal people who accompany you. Ask their forgiveness for the harm we humans have brought down upon them. Don’t worry. The heart knows the way though there may be high-rises, interstates, checkpoints, armed soldiers, massacres, wars, and those who will despise you because they despise themselves. The journey might take you a few hours, a day, a year, a few years, a hundred, a thousand or even more. Watch your mind. Without training it might run away and leave your heart for the immense human feast set by the thieves of time. Do not hold regrets. When you find your way to the circle, to the fire kept burning by the keepers of your soul, you will be welcomed.”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“Put down that bag of potato chips, that white bread, that bottle of pop. Turn off that cell phone, computer, and remote control. Open the door, then close it behind you. Take a breath offered by friendly winds. They travel the earth gathering essences of plants to clean. Give back with gratitude. If you sing it will give your spirit lift to fly to the stars’ ears and back. Acknowledge this earth who has cared for you since you were a dream planting itself precisely within your parents’ desire.”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“As you enter this doorway of womanhood,” they tell her, “you must keep the fire going of vkvsvmkv, or spiritual belief. You must seek and acquire a spiritual understanding of life. Your relationship with your Creator is central. You must tend it with quiet and communion. Turn your eyes and ears inward and listen. Begin every morning, tending this fire. “Emetvl’hvmke is community. Your body is a community of organs, all living with consciousness, that work together to house you in this story. Community is those with whom you live, from home to school, to your tribal nation, city, or state. You must remember to place community interest and benefits ahead of individual and personal gain. “Always be kind and humble. Eyasketv is humility. No one is above the other. “Vrakkueckv means respect. Respect this gift of life, and in doing so we respect ourselves and others. “Fvccetv is integrity. Be honest. Tell the truth. Keep an ethical stance. If you sense that someone calling themself “friend” is not your friend, then be honest with yourself and act accordingly. “Emenhonretv tayat translates as trust. Take responsibility for every act, thought, or dream. “Hoporrenkv is the continual gaining of wisdom. Listen. Study hard, beloved granddaughter.”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“My innate impulse is healing, which is also standing up for justice, which can heal hearts and nations.”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“I began to follow all of my thoughts and was surprised how many didn't belong to me. And how many had threads to ancestors, relatives, strangers, even plants, elements, and animals.”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“Poet Warrior gave birth to two children
And acquired more children along the way
Through association, marriage, and love.
There were more and more story bringers
In her world.
They became her fiercest teachers
Of how there is no end to love
And of how it plants itself
Deeper than earth
Or sky.”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“We pay for light, pay for water, next thing you know
We'll pay to breathe harder”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“As I started a new life in Arizona, I knew I was losing myself. Even a lost place within yourself is a place, albeit liminal, a kind of border town. You can make a temporary home if you need to from found materials and shreds of forgotten dreams, and you can even dress to appear somewhat ordinary as you run away, a refugee from yourself. I rolled up the map of my known world and set it aside for some kind of strange autonomy.”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“Our children put down their guns when we did to imagine with us.
We imagined the shining link between the heart and the sun.
We imagined tables of food for everyone.
We imagined the songs.”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“I've learned there are many genealogies. Within our family is a genealogy of rage. There is also a genealogy of justice. I would show you a map, but I am still searching the roadway for casualties.”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“I remain very aware of my failures and often run them obsessively through my mind, which is a failure in and of itself.”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior

“You were born of a generation that promised to help remember.”
― Joy Harjo, Poet Warrior