And I ask you
what bitter words are ruining your soft-skinned village,
because I want to make a poem that will cup
the inside of your throat
like the fire in the palm of a healing animal. [...]
Joy Harjo, In Mad Love and War; “Healing Animal”
you come home now
we would hold you closer than
the pain
you felt you deserved
Joy Harjo, In Mad Love and War; “Rainy Night”
Out came you and I blinking our eyes once more, entwined in our loves
and hates as we set off to recognize the sweet
and bitter gods who walk beside us, whisper madness
in our invisible ears any ordinary day.
Joy Harjo, In Mad Love and War; “The Book of Myths”
I want you eternally ever, [...]
Joy Harjo, In Mad Love and War; “Crossing Water”
I have seen heaven in a woman's eyes the color of burnt almonds.
Joy Harjo, In Mad Love and War; “Hieroglyphics”
Joy Harjo, In Mad Love and War; “Death Is a Woman”
I will dream you the wind,
taste salt air on my lips until
I take you apart raw.
Joy Harjo, In Mad Love and War; “City of Fire”
I have needed to talk but you are insanely absent and I have become insanely mute.
Joy Harjo, In Mad Love and War; “Day of the Dead”
[…] to take on this torture of language to describe once more what can't
be born on paper. [...]
Joy Harjo, In Mad Love and War; “Hieroglyphics”
...Your fire scorched
my lips, but it was sweet, a bitter poetry...
Joy Harjo, In Mad Love and War; “Deer Ghost”
We will make a river,
flood this city built of passion
with fire,
with a revolutionary fire.
Joy Harjo, In Mad Love and War; “City of Fire”
Aren't our bodies mostly wind? And are cursed, like the rest of us, with being able to smell but not see the world we are crazy for.
Joy Harjo, In Mad Love and War; “A Winning Hand”
There is an ache that begins
in the sound of an old blues song.
It becomes a house where all the lights have gone out
but one.
And it burns and burns
until there is only the blue smoke of dawn
and everyone is sleeping in someone's arms
even the flowers
even the sound of a thousand silences.
And the arms of night
in the arms of day.
Everyone except me.
Joy Harjo, In Mad Love and War; “Summer Night”
The land called miracle is the daughter you never died for and she
stands at the edge of the bed with her slim hand
against your cheek.
Joy Harjo, In Mad Love and War; “Healing Animal”
Joy Harjo, In Mad Love and War; “Legacy”
[Text ID: And I understand how lovers can destroy everything / together.]