Poet Joy Harjo Describes How Poems Transcend Words

Joy Harjo, a former United States Poet Laureate, described the power of poetry in enduring hardships, awaking to spiritual realities, and living in harmony with other people and the natural world. She spoke at Duke Chapel on March 3, 2026, to an audience that filled the main pews of the Chapel.

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“A poem is a ceremony,” Harjo said. “There is the title that says, this is the doorway, and then you go in, and each line and each image unfolds, and then by the end of the poem … you and your spirit have met, and the spirit of the poet have met, going forward changed.”

At the event titled “Poetry and Spirituality,” Harjo read published and forthcoming poems, and then responded to questions from Chapel Dean Luke A. Powery and audience members. Presented as part of the Provost’s Initiative on Pluralism, Free Inquiry, and Belonging, the event was the 2026 Duke Chapel Pluralism Lecture, a series that contributes to the university’s goal of “creating a rigorous scholarly community characterized by generous hospitality toward diverse religious and cultural traditions.”

During her opening poetry reading, Harjo introduced poems in her upcoming book Cloud Runner by explaining that she was writing them following the death of a daughter and other family members.

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“You know, you find a way to go on,” she said. “That is what poetry does for me, and I think about all of us. I think about what we have lost or are losing in this country, that is another kind of grief. I think about what this Earth is losing and so on.”

The last of the poems she read, “I Am a Prayer,” concluded: “I am a prayer of poetry speaking the soundlessness of the dead who return to speaking in a prayer. I am a prayer with children on my back, roaming the house of destruction and creation. I am a prayer without end.”

During the public conversation, Harjo said poetry can transcend words.

“Poetry is the most concise language,” she said. “What I love about poetry is … how the words take you to wordlessness, and there you are in just a few lines.”

An important gateway into that world of wordlessness, she said, is silence.

“It is important to make friends with silence,” she said. “It's so full of wisdom and knowledge and beauty and intensity…. When we listen to silence, if we listen long enough, we know who we are. We know what a lie is. We know what truth is.”

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Harjo’s poems also commented on politics. She read one about a trickster figure gaining power over people and another, "For Those Who Would Govern," that asks if leaders are more concerned about people, animals, and land in their care than with profit-taking.

She lamented efforts to ignore the lives and history of Native Americans and others. 

“Bringing everybody together and telling the story is the essential part of healing,” she said. “Multiculturalism and diversity—that is what it is about. It is not putting one person over the other. We need to come together and tell everybody's story, so we can heal together. It's not native history. It's American history.”

In responding to an audience question about her time as United States Poet Laureate from 2019 to 2022, she said that the COVID pandemic intensified the importance of poetry during her time in the role.

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“Poetry organizations were almost overwhelmed with people coming for poetry,” she said, “because of what poetry does in times when you can walk out the door and die the next day.”

Asked for a final piece of advice, Harjo said, “Read a poem, write a poem, sing.”

“Most of the songs we hear are love songs, but in our communities, we have songs for everything,” she said. “You can write a song for getting up when you're terrified there might be a war…. Write a song for anxiety. Write a song for this plant that you love.”

The audience responded with a standing ovation. Some in the audience embraced one another.

Following the event, Katie, a graduate student in the Nicholas School of the Environment, said she appreciated the connections Harjo made between poetry and spirituality. 

“I like what she was saying about having a daily practice of writing a poem or making sure you're helping someone every day,” Katie said. “I feel like that's something that a lot of people are searching for and haven't landed on.”

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Duke senior Griffin Storm, a public policy major and Duke Chapel Scholar, said he attended the event because he shares the home state of Oklahoma with Harjo and wanted to hear from a Poet Laureate.

“I resonated with what she said about silence—that if you sit in silence long enough, you can tell lies and tell the truth,” he said, consulting a page of notes he took during the event. “She told us to take our earbuds out. I think that's something we can all benefit from—avoiding the constant noise.”

Senior Abigail Bergan, a public policy and political science major, said Joy Harjo is her favorite living poet. 

“Joy Harjo, and poetry in general, and indigenous knowledge is just a balm for the soul,” Bergan said. “It was really wonderful to have this moment of peace and calm in a world and in a time that feels deeply tumultuous.”

Gaby Dunn is a senior sociology major pursuing a certificate in creative writing and poetry.

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“This has definitely been such an affirming event to go to, as someone who is interested in poetry and writes a lot of poetry,” she said. Harjo’s example of being an artist who works in poetry, memoir, music, and painting showed Dunn that “there's space in my life and my career to explore all of those things, and that the pursuit of them isn't meaningless or going to be unfruitful.”

Campus co-sponsors of the lecture were the Office of the Provost, Department of English, Native American/Indigenous Student Alliance, Thompson Writing Program, Language, Arts and Media Program, and Kenan Institute for Ethics’ Research for Indigenous Studies and Engagement in the United States.