I know I walk in and out of several worlds each day. Joy Harjo More Quotes by Joy Harjo More Quotes From Joy Harjo My house is the red earth . . . . Joy Harjo red earth house I listen to the gunfire we cannot hear, and begin this journey with the light of knowing the root of my own furious love. Joy Harjo light journey roots My sister accommodates me, never reproaches me with her doctrine, never tries to change me. She accepts and loves me, despite our differences. Joy Harjo differences and-love trying Remember that you are this universe and that this universe is you. Joy Harjo universe remember Because Music is a language that lives in the spiritual realms, we can hear it, we can notate it and create it, but we cannot hold it in our hands Joy Harjo language spiritual hands I spoke with the crows before leaving for Los Angeles. They were the resident storytellers whose strident and insistent voices added the necessary dissonance for color. They had cousins in California, and gave me their names and addresses, told me to look them up. They warned me, too, what they had heard about attitude there. And they were right. Attitude was thick, hung from the would-be's and has-beens and think-they-ares, so thick that I figured it was the major source of the smog. Joy Harjo cousin attitude thinking In Isleta the rainbow was a crack in the universe. We saw the barest of all life that is possible. Bright horses rolled over and over the dusking sky. Joy Harjo rainbow horse sky I was born with eyes that can never close. Joy Harjo born eye I believe that poets have to be inside their poems somewhere, or the poem won't work. Joy Harjo i-believe poetry believe The woman hanging from the 13th floor window on the east side of Chicago is not alone...She is all the women of the apartment building who stand watching her, watching themselves. Joy Harjo suicidal east chicago I don't see the desert as barren at all; I see it as full and ripe. It doesn't need to be flattered with rain. It certainly needs rain, but it does with what it has, and creates amazing beauty. Joy Harjo amazing desert rain beauty When you play a sax, that saxophone is irreverent. It's noisy; it's a trickster... you cannot hide the saxophone in your hands, so it's a good teacher. Joy Harjo good you good-teacher teacher When I began to listen to poetry, it's when I began to listen to the stones, and I began to listen to what the clouds had to say, and I began to listen to others. And I think, most importantly for all of us, then you begin to learn to listen to the soul, the soul of yourself in here, which is also the soul of everyone else. Joy Harjo yourself you soul clouds I believe in the sun. In the tangle of human failures of fear, greed and forgetfulness, the sun gives me clarity. Joy Harjo me fear sun believe I don't like this romanticization of Indian people in which Indian people are looked at as spiritual saviors, as people who have always taken care of the land. We're human beings. But I think different cultures have developed different aspects of humanness. Joy Harjo think care spiritual people Sometimes, I think, in order to get to something that we really want or we really love or something that needs to be realized, that we're tested. Joy Harjo think want sometimes love Humans are vulnerable and rely on the kindnesses of the earth and the sun; we exist together in a sacred field of meaning. Joy Harjo meaning earth together sun The creative act amazes me. Whether it's poetry, whether it's music, it's an amazing process, and it has something to do with bringing forth the old out into the world to create and to bring forth that which will rejuvenate. Joy Harjo me music poetry world The homeland affects you directly: it affects your body; it affects the collective mind and the collective heart and the collective spirit. Joy Harjo you body mind heart I started writing to save my life. Joy Harjo save my-life writing life
