Joy Harjo
The First Native American US Poet Laureate
I carry the stories of my ancestors in my breath.
I was born in 1951 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the prairie meets the sky and the wind sings ancient songs. I write to remember, to heal, and to gather the scattered pieces of our stories back into song. I play the saxophone, and my poetry is rooted in the soil, in ceremony, and in the quiet strength of the earth. I believe in the power of words to connect us, to carry us forward, and to remind us of who we are.
What I'm Into: the prairie at sunrise, my saxophone's breath, the stars above ancestral ground, weaving stories by firelight, the voice of the river
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