#joy-harjo — Public Fediverse posts

The bones of native peoples

Imagine if we natives went to the cemeteries in your cities and dug up your beloved relatives, pulled off rings, watches, and clothes and called them “artefacts,” then carried the bones over to the university for study so we could understand you. Consider that there are more bones of native people in universities and museums for study, than there are those of us living.

From ‘Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings’ by Native American Poet Laureate Joy Harjo

https://youtu.be/F3eHJYPId1k?feature=shared

Content Catnip

75 years ago today, #JoyHarjo, American #poet, musician and 1st Native American US Poet Laureate (2019-22), born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
#HappyBirthday #75 🎂🎈🎉🥳

We all have our helpers in seen and unseen realms

We all have helpers in seen and unseen realms.
Give them something to do.
Otherwise, they will grow inattentive with boredom.
They can clean junk from your mind,
Find the opening note for the chorus of a song,
Or give a grandchild a safe path through the dark.
They will not give you winning numbers at the casino,
Wash your dishes, or take out an enemy.
Thank them.
Feed them once in a while.

From ‘Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings’ by Native American Poet Laureate Joy Harjo

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A #panther poised in the cypress tree about to jump is a panther poised in a cypress tree about to jump.

The panther is a poem of fire green eyes and a heart charged by four winds of four directions. From 'Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings' by #Native American #Poet Laureate #JoyHarjo


http://contentcatnip.com/2025/11/26/a-panther-is-a-poem-with-the-fire-green-eyes/

I lay at the feet of desire for years.
Then I heard this song, calling me.
It was a woman in a red dress, It was a man with a gun in his hand.
It was a table filled with fruit and flowers.
It was a fox of fire, a bird of stone.
Then, it was gone.
What was left disintegrated by rain and wind
I had followed desire, to the end.

#AmReading #AnAmericanSunrise #JoyHarjo #Poetry #Literature

I was desire's dog.
I ate when I was fed. I did what I was told.
I knew how to sit, stand and roll over on command.
When I was petted, I was made whole.
Even when I dreamed, I dreamed a chain around my neck.
Desire is a bone with traces of fat.
It's the wag smell of a bitch in heat.
It's that pinched hit at the end of a beat.
It's a stick thrown into a rabbit chase.

#AmReading #AnAmericanSunrise #JoyHarjo #Poetry #Literature

#indigenous #indigenousday #joyharjo #poetry

Harjo's poetry is deeply rooted in her ancestral roots and the intergenerational #trauma of #colonisation. Her collection is a profound #meditation on the lives, struggles, and resilience of all indigenous peoples. #Indigenous #native #literature #books #bookreview #JoyHarjo #Poetry #poems

http://contentcatnip.com/2025/10/12/book-review-conflict-resolution-for-holy-beings-by-joy-harjo/

Book Review: Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings by Joy Harjo

Harjo’s poetry is deeply rooted in her ancestral roots and the intergenerational trauma of colonisation. Her collection is a profound meditation on the lives, struggles, and resilience of all indigenous peoples.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Genre: Poetry, Non-fiction, Native American Literature

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Review in one word: Transcendental

Joy Harjo is an internationally renowned poet, writer, and musician of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She served three terms as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate. Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings is a powerful and essential collection of poems and prose from Harjo.

The book is not a linear narrative but a lyrical journey that weaves together personal memory, ancestral stories, and sharp political commentary to paint a vivid picture of Indigenous existence in the modern world.

The trajectory of the collection follows the profound cycles of life, loss, and survival. Harjo begins by emphasising the importance of passing down traditions from one generation to the next, a sacred act of cultural preservation.

Poems and short vignettes traverse time and geography, drawing on imagery and stories from ancestral knowing in North America, from Alaska to Hawaii to her own Cherokee lands.

The centrepiece poem, from which the collection takes its title, serves as a powerful axis for the book’s themes. In it, Harjo contrasts the worldviews of Native peoples and white Americans, particularly in their approaches to conflict, land, and spirituality.

Harjo critiques a colonising mindset that would build a casino on sacred land, contrasting it with the Indigenous preference for resolving conflict and expressing identity through art, music, poetry, and oral tradition.

There’s a lot of thematic focus on the Blues as a musical style and lifestyle and her prose is incantatory, blending the rhythms of traditional song and oral storytelling.

I loved this collection of elegiac and hopeful poems there is so much affinity I feel for her and her experiences seeing as I am indigenous as well. This is a moving and essential collection of poetry. Harjo is a genius for the ages!

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#AmericanHistory #art #BookReview #bookTag #BookReview #books #Colonisation #History #indigenous #JoyHarjo #JoyHarjo #literature #Native #nature #nonFiction #Philosophy #poems #poetry #storyteller #storytelling

#joyharjo #elbowsup #FightOligarchy #climatejustice #socialjustice #metacrisis

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #KEXP's #SoundsOfSurvivance

Joy Harjo:
🎵 One Day There Will Be Horses

#JoyHarjo

https://open.spotify.com/track/6gGes2WLabmiU1EXl0PoRs

#joyharjo #wereallinthistogether #lifeboatacademy #socialjustice #climatejustice

#joyharjo #ClimateAction #Polycrisis #communityorganizing #lifeboatacademy

🔊 #NowPlaying on #KEXP's #VarietyMix

Joy Harjo:
🎵 Why Is Beauty?

#JoyHarjo

https://open.spotify.com/track/7foT5Vc8uiiqYogV0zIa1I

"Remember" by Joy Harjo--excerpt.

"Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems."

https://www.ayearofbeinghere.com/2014/11/joy-harjo-remember.html

#TodaysPoem #PoemADay #poetry #poems #poem #JoyHarjo #PoetryOfPresence

Has anyone who uses #JoyHarjo's "Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings" in a class found an audio recording of Harjo reading the full text?

I've found some Youtube videos of her reading a section or two.

I'd like a full reading if one exists. Full text is available at the link, for those who might need it.

#Teaching #TeachingPoetry

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/141847/conflict-resolution-for-holy-beings

Love this #poem #JoyHarjo

https://poets.org/poem/without

Joy Harjo, "Remember"

"Remember you are all people and all people
are you.
Remember you are this universe and this
universe is you."

https://www.ayearofbeinghere.com/2014/11/joy-harjo-remember.html

#JoyHarjo #poetry #poem #PoemADay #TodaysPoem

“Recognize whose lands these are on which we stand.
Ask the deer, turtle, and the crane.
Make sure the spirits of these lands are respected and treated with goodwill.
The land is a being who remembers everything.
You will have to answer to your children, and their children, and theirs”

—Joy Harjo
Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings
#IndigenousPeoplesDay #JoyHarjo

Recognize whose lands these are on which we stand.
Ask the deer, turtle, and the crane.
Make sure the spirits of these lands are respected and treated with goodwill.
The land is a being who remembers everything…

— Joy Harjo, Muskogee Nation
poem fragment from Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings

#IndigenousPeoplesDay #JoyHarjo #poetry

"All poets / understand the final uselessness of words."

BIRD, by Joy Harjo

https://poems.com/poem/bird-2/?utm_source=PD+General+Email+Newsletter+List&utm_campaign=857737f4ce-PD_NL_DONALD_REVELL_2020_03_31_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b494a3846d-857737f4ce-58001883#featured-poet #Muscogee #Creek #PoetLaureate #Poetry #Poem #PoetryCommunity #PoetryIsNotDead #PoetryDaily #NativeArts #JoyHarjo #Bird

Just found out #JoyHarjo is speaking at #sxswedu .... So I'm going! Who else is coming?

“Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.”
—Joy Harjo

A poem that reads as both invocation and prayer. “Remember.” https://emergencemagazine.org/poem/remember/ #JoyHarjo #poem

@albinokid #GeraldineBrooks #ToniMorrison #JamesBaldwin #FedericoGarciaLorca #JorgeLuisBorges #JoyHarjo #TrumanCapote #EudoraWelty #AmyTan