>> Question: What does it mean to be the U.S. Poet Laureate? >> Joy Harjo: It is quite an honor to be carrying. I feel like it's something that I am carrying and it's not just me carrying the title; it has to do with my family, my people, this country-all of the poets, all the people-poetry belongs to everyone. It doesn't just belong sitting on a shelf in a university, but poetry is June Jordan, you know, with her "poetry for the people." I think about what happens, you know, what I will take with me when I leave this world and it's poetry. We'll take, certainly, our actions and how we are, but it's the poetry, we can carry that with us. We can carry it with us when we walk around. At those moments that are the most terrifying, empowering, grief-filled, joy-filled, they're always accompanied by poetry. >> Q: What would you say to someone who asks "why is poetry important?" >> Harjo: It would depend on who that person was, you know; it would depend. If I had time, I would find a poem that I would know that would either challenge, you know, or resonate or change-there's always a poem out there that can change your life. >> Q: What does being the first Native Poet Laureate mean? >> Harjo: It's never just about me. We all have poetry ancestors. We have-so when I write a poem-you can look at any poem and say, okay, this poem wouldn't be here if it weren't for, say, Whitman or Dickinson or for Muscogee-the Muscogee stomp dance music and a song by so and so. So I feel like I am here to-there's not just me sitting here-there's all the poets, ultimately, all the poets-past, present and future. It goes way, way back. I always said if we could really do kind of a DNA of poetry we'd find it all connected. And then with poetry, of course, you would go back to the origin story of probably almost every school of poetry we would wind up back with dance and music accompanying it. Because poetry ultimately, you know, nobody likes to be alone, even poetry.