
Poet Warrior
A Memoir
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Narrated by:
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Joy Harjo
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By:
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Joy Harjo
About this listen
National best seller
Three-term poet laureate Joy Harjo offers a vivid, lyrical, and inspiring call for love and justice in this contemplation of her trailblazing life.
Joy Harjo, the first Native American to serve as US poet laureate, invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her "poet-warrior" road. A musical, kaleidoscopic, and wise follow-up to Crazy Brave, Poet Warrior reveals how Harjo came to write poetry of compassion and healing, poetry with the power to unearth the truth and demand justice.
Harjo listens to stories of ancestors and family, the poetry and music that she first encountered as a child, and the messengers of a changing earth - owls heralding grief, resilient desert plants, and a smooth green snake curled up in surprise. She celebrates the influences that shaped her poetry, among them Audre Lorde, N. Scott Momaday, Walt Whitman, Muscogee stomp dance call-and-response, Navajo horse songs, rain, and sunrise. In absorbing, incantatory prose, Harjo grieves at the loss of her mother, reckons with the theft of her ancestral homeland, and sheds light on the rituals that nourish her as an artist, mother, wife, and community member.
Moving fluidly between prose, song, and poetry, Harjo recounts a luminous journey of becoming, a spiritual map that will help us all find home. Poet Warrior sings with the jazz, blues, tenderness, and bravery that we know as distinctly Joy Harjo.
©2021 Joy Harjo (P)2021 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Bear Heart was a Muscogee Creek Native American Church Road Man with a talent for seeing people as individuals. The Bear Is My Father: Indigenous Wisdom of a Muscogee Creek Caretaker of Sacred Ways contains the final words Bear Heart wrote before his “going on” as well as contributions from friends and family whose lives were forever changed by Bear Heart’s presence and work. In this new book, Bear Heart uses stories of his youth and traditional medicine practices to convey lessons and knowledge about living in harmony and with respect for all.
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Trail magic
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What listeners say about Poet Warrior
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-24-22
Majestic
A story rich with down to Earth cultural experiences of Joy Harjo. Her voice is filled with dreamy spiritual power ~ a wonderful oral history of her ancestors, her own life, and her descendants from her poetic perspective.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Angela
- 08-13-22
True Poet Warrior.
True Poet Spirit. True Poet Teacher. As Inspiring as Crazy Brave. Thank you Joy Harjo!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Karli
- 08-10-22
A'ho day baht haw Joy Harjo, take my thank you!
I love Joy Harjo! As a native woman living in a colonized world these kinds of books are vital for us in the process of decolonization
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-01-22
Its over already?
You know one of these fascinating books, that takes you so many wonderful places, and inspire you and you can listen to it just a tiny bit at a time because than you just are lead to write and when you hear the voice of the Audible guy, telling you it’s over you go, Oh no, it’s over already?! Can I have more?
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-19-22
A wonderful spiritual journey!
This is a book I will listen to again. Her descriptions of life's journey are written so elegantly as to move your soul a bit. The last chapter will bring you so close to a loved one that as moved on it may make you tear up with joy. This is now one of my favorite books!
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4 people found this helpful
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- cami drake
- 03-08-22
Phenomenal book!!
Powerful . Beautiful. Amazing. Passionate. Invigorating. Enlightening. Engaging. and much more. I can't find enough adjectives to describe this book.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Nova❤
- 07-08-23
Great Memoir!
Joy Harjo is a gem! I feel like I know her, like a relative, after listening to her tell her personal story. I've already downloaded her other books, and I'll definitely listen to this again!
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- Rosina Dickerson
- 05-17-23
Love Joy Harjo
Joy Harjo is one of my favorite poets of all time. It is incredibly powerful to hear her read her work in her voice so the listener can know how it was intended to be read.
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- Amazona
- 02-04-24
Story Told with Heart
Amazingly deep and touchingly real as told by the poet, author herself. Helps me connect to my own roots and ancestors, and to my life’s journey.
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- Natasha
- 04-28-24
Soul Medicine!
Drank in the words as they floated deep within my soul. A must read / listen for all!
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