Literary Birthday – 9 May – Joy Harjo

Happy Birthday, Joy Harjo, born on 9 May 1951.

Joy Harjo Quotes

1. There is no poetry where there are no mistakes.
2. It’s possible to understand the world from studying a leaf. You can comprehend the laws of aerodynamics, mathematics, poetry and biology through the complex beauty of such a perfect structure. It’s also possible to travel the whole globe and learn nothing.
3. I’ve always had a theory that some of us are born with nerve endings longer than our bodies.
4. A story matrix connects all of us. There are rules, processes, and circles of responsibility in this world. And the story begins exactly where it is supposed to begin. We cannot skip any part.
5. I was born with eyes that can never close…
6. After my father left us, I learned that some voices can deceive you. There is a top layer and there is a bottom, and they don’t match.
7. All acts of kindness are lights in the war for justice.
8. [Poetry] is the art closest to music. It trumps rhetoric. Can carry grief, ecstasy, celebration, despair, or joy. It is a tool for the kind of disruption needed to clean a wound and heal. It predicts how we will know who we are in forthcoming generations. Without it, we will no longer be human. (Britannica)
9. With poetry, I feel like I use words to get to the places the words can’t go. (Britannica)

Joy Harjo is an American poet, musician, and author whose works include She Had Some Horses, Crazy Brave: A Memoir, and In Mad Love and War. Born Joy Foster, she later adopted her paternal grandmother’s surname after enrolling in the Muscogee Nation. She received the PEN Open Book Award in 2002. Harjo served three terms as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States. Her many other honours include the Ruth Lilly Prize, the Wallace Stevens Award, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Tulsa Artist Fellowship. She also serves as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and chair of the board of directors for the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation. Harjo’s poetry blends Native symbolism, imagery, history, and ideas with universal themes. Her work frequently explores social and personal issues, especially feminism, as well as music, particularly jazz.

Image: Library of Congress Life, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joy_Harjo_smiling,_2019.jpg

by Amanda Patterson

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