Joy Harjo (b. 1951) was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was the 23rd United States Poet Laureate from 2019 to 2022, the first Native American to hold that honor.

Her poetry is generally characterized by:

• Harjo’s poems frequently use repetition (anaphora) and parallelism, which gives them a chant-like or prayer-like quality. This isn’t just a stylistic choice; it reflects the oral traditions of Native American storytelling and the belief that words have the power to enact change or healing.
• A central pillar of her work is the belief that humans, animals, plants, and the earth are not separate entities. In Harjo’s world, the land is not a backdrop; it is a living character with memory and voice.
• Harjo famously speaks about writing in English—the language of the colonizer—as a tool for survival and resistance.
• As a saxophonist and vocalist, Harjo views poetry as being “the art closest to music.” Her lines often follow the improvisational rhythms of Jazz.
• Unlike the linear “beginning-middle-end” structure of much Western literature, Harjo’s poetry operates on circular time.

Here is one of my favorite Harjo poems, “Eagle Poem.”

Enjoy!

EAGLE POEM
  by Joy Harjo

To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.

LISTENING WITH A PENCIL AND MY EAR

There is so much to like in this poem. What caught my ear on this reading are these lines

We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.

In this poem we see what makes Harjo a truly great poet. And what is more, what a makes her a true gift to the American Poetic Tradition.