Joy Harjo
Quick answer: Joy Harjo's poetry craft: incantatory repetition, prayer-like address and story carried by song. Practical lessons from the three-term US Poet Laureate.
In 2019 Joy Harjo became the first Native American to serve as United States Poet Laureate, and she was reappointed twice, holding the post for three terms. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1951, she is a member of the Muscogee Nation, a saxophonist who tours with her music, and the author of collections including She Had Some Horses, In Mad Love and War and An American Sunrise, along with the memoir Crazy Brave.
Harjo's poems draw on oral tradition, prayer and song, which makes them sound effortless and makes them very hard to imitate without understanding the machinery. The good news for a working poet is that the machinery is visible: repetition, address, and a habit of letting mythic time and the present moment share one room.
Who she is
Harjo trained at the Institute of American Indian Arts and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and her work carries both inheritances: ceremonial cadence on one side, contemporary free-verse discipline on the other. An American Sunrise returns to the lands in the Southeast from which her ancestors were forcibly removed in the 1830s.
Music is not a sideline. She has recorded albums, performs poems with saxophone, and often speaks of poetry and song as one continuous practice. Her lines are written for breath and voice first.
The signature moves
Four techniques recur across her books and are worth close study.
What you can learn
Write a repetition poem honestly: choose one command, remember, listen, rise, and begin at least ten lines with it, letting the content widen from the personal to the cosmic and back. The skill is sequencing, so that the repetition ascends rather than idles. Structure and language of this kind read powerfully aloud, and score-based contests such as Writory's monthly round are a fair test of whether your refrain builds or stalls.
Practise layered time by writing a scene set today in which an ancestor is present and unremarked. And pick one ordinary object from your home to treat as an altar: describe what it has witnessed, who it has fed, what it will outlast.
Where to start reading
Remember and Perhaps the World Ends Here are the essential single poems. For books, start with She Had Some Horses, then An American Sunrise, and the career-spanning selection How We Became Human. Crazy Brave, her memoir, explains where the voice comes from, and her recordings with music complete the picture.
What poets can take from this
- Choose one imperative and open ten or more lines with it, sequencing from small to vast.
- Address the reader directly and give them something to do, remember, carry, return.
- Let an ancestor stand in a present-day scene without explanation.
- Treat one ordinary household object as sacred and write its full history.
- Test every draft aloud; if a line cannot be sung or breathed, rebreak it.
Try it yourself
Write a poem of instructions addressed to someone about to leave home for good. Begin at least eight lines with the same verb, and let the instructions move from practical (pack, lock, phone) to ancestral (remember, carry, return) without changing tone.
Questions
What is Joy Harjo known for?
She is known for poems that braid Muscogee oral tradition, prayer and jazz into contemporary free verse, and for serving three terms as US Poet Laureate from 2019 to 2022, the first Native American in the role.
What is Joy Harjo's most famous poem?
Remember is her most widely shared poem, built on a single repeated command. Perhaps the World Ends Here, which imagines all of human life at the kitchen table, is nearly as well known.
Does Joy Harjo really perform music?
Yes. She is a saxophonist and vocalist who has released several albums and often performs her poems with music, treating poetry and song as one practice.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
Enter a Writory poetry contest
Enter the September contest and have your own poem read and scored. That first entry makes you a Writorian.