Harjo’s Portal to Grace
Through poetry and unflinching honesty, Poet Warrior tells the story of how the path of Joy Harjo’s life lead her to be a poet and writer. Harjo tells her own life story with flowing poetic prose that brings the reader into her soul. Here she shows us the dark memories of her life, yet she still retains a beautiful glowing light that she reflects out to the world. Poet Warrior is one poet’s inspirational story of survival, of living as an Indigenous American in a society that has marginalized the rightful keepers of this land, and of her desire to connect with her ancestors through song and storytelling. It should be required reading for all students of history or poetry or of simply being human.
While a memoir spanning a single life, Poet Warrior touches on many themes of collective existence. The plight of Indigenous peoples, a connection to heritage and ancestors, the importance of stories, poems, and songs to connect and heal, and the value in failure and forgiveness. These themes show up again and again as Harjo weaves the story of her life from quiet, abused child to wise elder grandmother. There is so much pain in these themes, so much darkness and violence, yet Harjo retains a tone of compassion, delight, and curiosity about the world. The underlying theme of it all seems to be the need to let go of the things that could break a spirit, not only for the good of the self, but so that compassion can be extended to others.
Harjo’s great-grandfather was a warrior who stood up to Andrew Jackson and the forced removal of Natives from their lands. Her ancestors were forced to walk the Trail of Tears from the American south to Oklahoma. As a teenager and young adult, Harjo and her friends were harassed by police simply because they were Natives trying to live their lives. “Police always followed us wherever we gathered. They lined up outside Indian bars near closing to pick us off.” (Harjo 119) “We knew we were being stopped because we were Indian.” (Harjo 120) This generational trauma and continued harassment shaped her story, yet she does not let it define her. She writes of her bond with her ancestors. How she looks to them for guidance and feels them near her when she is making a life altering decision. “A family is essentially a field of stories, each intricately connected. Death does not sever the connection; rather, the story expands as it continues unwinding inter-dimensionally.” (Harjo 18) This connection to her ancestors and their guidance, her experience as a Native, is a thread running throughout the memoir.
From an early age Harjo would sit under the kitchen table and listen to the stories her mother and the women of the community would tell each other. She learned that “A story could destroy someone’s life or make them a hero. The story circle was a powerful place.” (Harjo 24) Yet her love of words brought violence from her father when she tried out some of the slang she learned by listening and was thrown against the wall for swearing. “I was learning that speaking was fraught with consequences. And fear was planted in me before I could speak, from my father’s violence.” (Harjo 29) Yet she loved the feel of words in her mouth and soon learned there were other lonely people out there using words to survive when she came upon the poetry of Emily Dickinson. “I was nobody, hearing the voice of another nobody, both of us peering at each other over our knees. We bonded over our hiding places. Two nobodies equal one somebody.” (Harjo 37)
Through her teen years she was met with violence from her father, unwelcome advances from her stepfather, and coldness from her mother. She left home at seventeen and became a young mother. She remained at university, at first as a medical student and painter, connecting with other young Natives and becoming an activist for Indigenous rights and environmental issues. As if being called from beyond herself, she soon turned to poetry and song lyrics as her passion, even as she questioned how valuable this would be to a world she felt needed her as a healer. “Writing was my portal to grace, an opening in which I could hear my ancestors speaking, in which I knew we were cared for no matter my inadequacies or feelings. (Harjo 134) She found that words and stories were just another form of healing and something very needed in a harsh world.
It was through writing that she was able to find forgiveness for those who had harmed her. In spite of the violence of her childhood, she was close to her father later in life, “I kept close with my father. … He loved his grandchildren.” (Harjo 133) She found compassion for her stepfather by realizing, “Everyone has a story. Even the monster has a story.” (Harjo 93) She nursed her mother through a battle with cancer and became close with her before her death. By releasing the stories of violence and hardship, Harjo was able to connect on a deeper level with humanity, “We are all here to serve each other. At some point we have to understand that we do not need to carry a story that is unbearable.” (Harjo 20) Harjo is open in the sharing of her own failures and the failures of those in her life. Yet, she presents the reader with a roadmap to forgiveness. A sense of healing in stories, in art, in community, in accountability, and in working toward justice for all.
As Gabino Iglesias wrote in his review for NPR, “The simplicity with which Harjo writes about deep things makes this a beautiful book. It also makes it the kind of memoir that is a work of art and a guide to life for those willing to listen.” The same reviewer wrote, “Joy Harjo is more than a poet, painter, and musician; she is a spiritual being aware of the meaning of everything we see as well as the things around us that are usually invisible. And Poet Warrior is an invitation to open our eyes and see it all with her.” This is Harjo’s gift. The reader is not just an observer, but is brought along on a journey with Harjo and is healed through her compassionate storytelling. Paul Kaplan mostly agrees in his review for The Harvard Review, with the only criticism being, “Poet Warrior cuts rapidly between vignettes, some of which might benefit from further dramatization and dialogue.” Yet, it is the lack of drawn out dialogue that allows Harjo’s words to flow from her own hand. This is her story and needs to be told in her words, and through her own poetry.
That poetry tells a story alongside the prose in Poet Warrior. Poetry tells the story of Girl Warrior growing into Poet Warrior. It tells the story of the death of Harjo’s mentor, and it tells the story of Harjo’s deep spiritual connections with nature. The poetry intermingled with the prose is fitting since Harjo was the United States Poet Laureate for three terms, the first Native American to ever hold that office. Harjo tells of discovering not only Dickinson, but Simon Ortiz, Leslie Marmon Silko, N. Scott Momaday, and many other Native poets who taught her what was possible with words. She writes about a meeting with Audre Lorde that inspired her further. “She (Audre Lorde) taught me that there is no separation between being a poet and being a mother and a lover. All are warrior roles.” (Harjo 178)
Thank goodness for this inspiration as the world would be much darker without the light of Harjo’s poetry. Harjo is a survivor who faced the adversity of being a Native woman in a world that shuns both. Here is a woman who could have been hardened and made bitter by the violence she endured, who could have given into rage, and who instead made the choice to “Grow poetry in the debris left behind by rage,” (Harjo 49), to forgive, share her stories, and her wisdom. “I thank the story for what it is teaching me,” (Harjo 73) and society thanks Harjo for what she has given back through compassion and forgiveness.Works Cited
Harjo, Joy. Poet Warrior. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2021.
Iglesias, Gabino. “’Poet Warrior’ Centers On The Role Of Poetry, Art And Music In Joy Harjo’s Life.” NPR, 8 September. 2021_,_ https://www.npr.org/2021/09/08/1035033419/poet-warrior-centers-on-the-role-of-poetry-art-and-music-in-joy-harjo-s-life.
Kaplan, Paul. “Poet Warrior.” Harvard Review Online, 1 February 2022, https://www.harvardreview.org/book-review/poet-warrior/