Legacy Living with Dr. Gloria Burgess · Talk Network Radio Podcasts

Joy Harjo - Poet For Our Times | Episode #493

April 8, 2026·38 min·2 clips

Joy Harjo took the stage in black with a saxophone, wailing poetry through music that merged earth, sky, and love songs.

1. Legacy Living with Dr. Gloria Burgess, Episode #493, focuses entirely on the music and poetry of Joy Harjo, the first Native American poet laureate of the United States. 2. Dr. Gloria Burgess, the host, describes herself as an international leadership expert and notes she met Joy Harjo years earlier when both were featured poets at the Skagit River Poetry Festival. 3. The episode's thesis is that music and poetry are inseparable — and that Harjo's life and work exemplify what Legacy Living means: making one's life count through art, memory, and service. 4. Burgess recounts Harjo taking the stage at Skagit River in black clothes with turquoise jewelry and a saxophone, playing before speaking — an experience Burgess describes as hearing 'love songs to the sun' and 'nighttime memories to the moon.' 5. Harjo is identified as the second poet to serve three consecutive terms as U.S. Poet Laureate, and Burgess notes she brings together roles as poet, musician, and activist. 6. The first poem read is 'Remember,' which moves through sky, stars, moon, sun, birth, earth, plants, wind, and language, ending with 'Remember the dance that language is, that life is.' 7. Burgess frames 'Remember' as a summons — the repeated word functioning musically as 'a calling to us all' to reconnect with the symbiotic relationship between humans and all living things. 8. The second poem read is 'For Calling the Spirit Back Home from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet' from Harjo's collection 'Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings.' 9. That poem opens with instructions to put down junk food and technology, step outside, breathe, acknowledge the earth, and seek forgiveness from animals and ancestors for 'the harm we humans have brought down upon them.' 10. The poem describes the spirit as possibly 'caught in corners and creases of shame, judgment, and human abuse,' and instructs the reader to call it back 'as you would to a beloved child.' 11. The poem ends with a direct command Burgess reads as the episode's core message: 'Help the next person find their way through the dark.' 12. The third poem, 'Grace,' dedicated to Darlene Wind and James Welch, recounts a hard winter spent with a friend in 'the cursed country of the fox' — hungry, displaced, walking through 'cheap apartment walls' into a town that 'never wanted us,' until finding grace at a truck stop on Highway 80. 13. 'Grace' ends with the admission 'I know there is something larger than the memory of a dispossessed people. We have seen it' — a note of hard-won witness rather than resolution. 14. The fourth poem, 'Eagle Poem,' describes an eagle circling over Salt River on a Sunday morning in blue sky and wind, sweeping 'our hearts clean with sacred wings,' and closes with 'We pray that it will be done in beauty.' 15. Each poem is read twice in succession, giving listeners time to absorb the imagery before Burgess offers her reflection. 16. Burgess connects all four poems to the same impulse: slowing down, being still, and inhabiting the present moment — what she calls 'the music of your life.' 17. The episode is solo, meditative, and unhurried; Burgess's delivery is warm and her commentary brief, allowing the poems to carry most of the episode's weight. 18. There are no guests, debates, or data points; the format is closer to a devotional reading than a conventional podcast interview. 19. Listeners drawn to spoken-word poetry, indigenous voices, or reflective episodes about presence and memory will find the most resonance. 20. Listeners seeking interviews, discussion, or practical advice will likely find the solo-reading format and devotional tone a poor fit.

As heard by us

A poem-led meditation on renewal, belonging, and making life count.

The episode lingers on Joy Harjo's poem, with Gloria Burgess treating it as a path through surrender, renewal, belonging, and the work of helping the next person find their way through the dark.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for a poetry-led reminder to let go of shame and help the next person.

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