WEBVTT

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>> Question: What does it mean
to be the U.S. Poet Laureate?

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>> Joy Harjo: It is quite
an honor to be carrying.

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I feel like it's
something that I am carrying

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and it's not just me carrying
the title; it has to do

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with my family, my people,
this country-all of the poets,

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all the people-poetry
belongs to everyone.

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It doesn't just belong sitting
on a shelf in a university,

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but poetry is June
Jordan, you know,

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with her "poetry
for the people."

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I think about what happens, you
know, what I will take with me

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when I leave this
world and it's poetry.

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We'll take, certainly, our
actions and how we are,

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but it's the poetry, we
can carry that with us.

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We can carry it with
us when we walk around.

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At those moments that are the
most terrifying, empowering,

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grief-filled, joy-filled,

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they're always accompanied
by poetry.

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>> Q: What would you
say to someone who asks

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"why is poetry important?"

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>> Harjo: It would depend
on who that person was,

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you know; it would depend.

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If I had time, I would find
a poem that I would know

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that would either challenge,
you know, or resonate

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or change-there's
always a poem out there

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that can change your life.

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>> Q: What does being the first
Native Poet Laureate mean?

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>> Harjo: It's never
just about me.

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We all have poetry ancestors.

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We have-so when I write a
poem-you can look at any poem

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and say, okay, this
poem wouldn't be here

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if it weren't for, say,
Whitman or Dickinson

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or for Muscogee-the
Muscogee stomp dance music

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and a song by so and so.

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So I feel like I am here
to-there's not just me sitting

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here-there's all the
poets, ultimately,

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all the poets-past,
present and future.

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It goes way, way back.

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I always said if we could
really do kind of a DNA

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of poetry we'd find
it all connected.

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And then with poetry, of
course, you would go back

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to the origin story of
probably almost every school

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of poetry we would
wind up back with dance

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and music accompanying it.

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Because poetry ultimately,
you know, nobody likes

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to be alone, even poetry.