Joy Harjo's Web Log

Another late balmy evening. Spent a few hours working on tunes for the Native Roots and Rhythms Show I'll be playing in Santa Fe on August 21st with the wonderful musicians Mary Redhouse and Will Clipman. (Both play with Carlos Nakai). Inspired by the saxophonist David Choy after the Hawaii Jazz Festival Swing show last Friday night at the Hawaii Theater. Incredible player: has skill, technique, feel and over all brilliance.

So much of playing is about the nuance of silence.

And maybe that's what I'm getting at here tonight as another family of tradewinds returns up here in Alewa Heights. So easy to fill it up with everything: being a record company*, a book of stories due, the daily practice of voice and saxophone, house stuff, family stuff, friends, life, and now these new songs that want to be written and are keeping me up late. Here's the lyrics of a new tune that I'm in the middle of arranging. It's copyrighted. Still in process. It's not poetry. Lyrics in standard song forms are so much different. And some become poetry, some not. Still some editing and rewriting to do. The original light of impulse on this one fueled by a conversation with a family member about familial historic tragedies and likely impending ones. We will all leave this earth. Some sooner than others.

Fly Away
c Joy Harjo

There is no easy way to turn and walk the other way
Though there are doorways,
And afterwards, there�s never words
To say what can�t be said

If I were a red bird I�d sing it
Or a blackbird, I�d wing it.
But I�m standing here in yesterday.
Downing back the fears.

There we are in our childhood suits, waving
Back the troubles.
Who�s to say what�s right, what�s wrong?
We take what we can carry.

If I were a red bird I�d sing it
Or a blackbird, I�d wing it
But I�m standing here in yesterday.
Downing back the fears.

We might be born a thousand times each day
That means a thousand ends are blooming.
Fly away and don�t look back
We�ll keep what�s ours to keep

If I were a red bird I�d sing it
Or a blackbird, I�d wing it.
I�m being tempted by some sweet, sweet winds
Beyond laughter, or tears.

Fly away and don�t look back
In your pretty red jacket
Fly away, in your shiny black
One day I�ll follow

c Joy Harjo, Katcv Publishing (Katcv means big cat in the Mvskoke language)


*Native Joy for Real is for sale on Amazon.com. NOW. Also from SOAR Records. And from P.O.Box 831, Glenpool, OK (see website).