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Secrets from the Center of the World (Volume 17)
"My house is the red earth; it could be the center of the world."
This is Navajo country, a land of mysterious and delicate beauty. "Stephen Strom's photographs lead you to that place," writes Joy Harjo. "The camera eye becomes a space you can move through into the powerful landscapes that he photographs. The horizon may shift and change all around you, but underneath it is the heart with which we move." Harjo's prose poems accompany these images, interpreting each photograph as a story that evokes the spirit of the Earth. Images and words harmonize to evoke the mysteries of what the Navajo call the center of the world.
This is Navajo country, a land of mysterious and delicate beauty. "Stephen Strom's photographs lead you to that place," writes Joy Harjo. "The camera eye becomes a space you can move through into the powerful landscapes that he photographs. The horizon may shift and change all around you, but underneath it is the heart with which we move." Harjo's prose poems accompany these images, interpreting each photograph as a story that evokes the spirit of the Earth. Images and words harmonize to evoke the mysteries of what the Navajo call the center of the world.
80 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1989
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335 people want to read
About the author
Joy Harjo
104 books2,029 followersBio Joy Harjo
Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. She has released four award-winning CD's of original music and won a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist of the Year. She performs nationally and internationally solo and with her band, The Arrow Dynamics. She has appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, in venues in every major U.S. city and internationally. Most recently she performed We Were There When Jazz Was Invented at the Chan Centre at UBC in Vancouver, BC, and appeared at the San Miguel Writer’s Conference in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her one-woman show, Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light, which features guitarist Larry Mitchell premiered in Los Angeles in 2009, with recent performances at Joe’s Pub in New York City, LaJolla Playhouse as part of the Native Voices at the Autry, and the University of British Columbia. Her seven books of poetry include such well-known titles as How We Became Human- New and Selected Poems and She Had Some Horses. Her awards include the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. She was recently awarded 2011 Artist of the Year from the Mvskoke Women’s Leadership Initiative, and a Rasmuson US Artists Fellowship. She is a founding board member and treasurer of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Harjo writes a column Comings and Goings for her tribal newspaper, the Muscogee Nation News. Soul Talk, Song Language, Conversations with Joy Harjo was recently released from Wesleyan University Press. Crazy Brave, a memoir is her newest publication from W.W. Norton, and a new album of music is being produced by the drummer/producer Barrett Martin. She is at work on a new shows: We Were There When Jazz Was Invented, a musical story that proves southeastern indigenous tribes were part of the origins of American music. She lives in the Mvskoke Nation of Oklahoma.
Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. She has released four award-winning CD's of original music and won a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist of the Year. She performs nationally and internationally solo and with her band, The Arrow Dynamics. She has appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, in venues in every major U.S. city and internationally. Most recently she performed We Were There When Jazz Was Invented at the Chan Centre at UBC in Vancouver, BC, and appeared at the San Miguel Writer’s Conference in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her one-woman show, Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light, which features guitarist Larry Mitchell premiered in Los Angeles in 2009, with recent performances at Joe’s Pub in New York City, LaJolla Playhouse as part of the Native Voices at the Autry, and the University of British Columbia. Her seven books of poetry include such well-known titles as How We Became Human- New and Selected Poems and She Had Some Horses. Her awards include the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. She was recently awarded 2011 Artist of the Year from the Mvskoke Women’s Leadership Initiative, and a Rasmuson US Artists Fellowship. She is a founding board member and treasurer of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Harjo writes a column Comings and Goings for her tribal newspaper, the Muscogee Nation News. Soul Talk, Song Language, Conversations with Joy Harjo was recently released from Wesleyan University Press. Crazy Brave, a memoir is her newest publication from W.W. Norton, and a new album of music is being produced by the drummer/producer Barrett Martin. She is at work on a new shows: We Were There When Jazz Was Invented, a musical story that proves southeastern indigenous tribes were part of the origins of American music. She lives in the Mvskoke Nation of Oklahoma.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
November 13, 2024
Edição portuguesa: “Segredos do Centro do Mundo”, editora Flâneur, setembro 2024
#National Native American Heritage Month
É verdade que a paisagem forma a mente. Se eu permanecer aqui tempo suficiente, aprenderei a cantar. Nada dessas coisas sentimentais do country e western, ou duelos operísticos, mas algo fixe como blues, ou próximo do som de uma mulher Navajo a cantar ao romper da manhã.
Para o povo Navajo, o centro do mundo é o território onde se situa a sua reserva, a maior dos Estados Unidos, estendendo-se pelos estados do Utah, do Arizona e do Novo México. Sobre este árido cenário em várias tonalidades de ocre, polvilhados aqui e ali de verde, caracterizado por planícies e planaltos desérticos e ravinas inóspitas, escreveu a poetisa Joy Harjo, também ela pertencente a um povo indígena, que eu já conhecia de “Ela tinha alguns cavalos”.
Esta terra é um poema de areia ocre e queimada que jamais poderia escrever, a não ser que o papel fosse o sacramento do céu, e a tinta a linha quebrada de cavalos selvagens a cambalear no horizonte a vários quilómetros de distância. Ainda assim, será que alguma coisa escrita tem importância para a terra, o vento e o céu?
Nestes pequenos textos de grande lirismo, há não só cavalos mas também borboletas e corvos contra um céu imenso, o movimento nesta paisagem estagnada de areia, terra, rochas, todas as manifestações telúricas captadas pela lente de Stephen Strom. Complementando-se a imagem e a escrita, é impossível fazer jus a este livro com citações não acompanhadas das respectivas fotografias.
Tudo o que é importante está aqui. Tudo o que continuará a ter importância nos próximos milhares de anos continuará a estar aqui. Ao longe, aproxima-se a criança que eras há alguns anos. Vê como ri enquanto persegue uma borboleta branca.
#National Native American Heritage Month
É verdade que a paisagem forma a mente. Se eu permanecer aqui tempo suficiente, aprenderei a cantar. Nada dessas coisas sentimentais do country e western, ou duelos operísticos, mas algo fixe como blues, ou próximo do som de uma mulher Navajo a cantar ao romper da manhã.
Para o povo Navajo, o centro do mundo é o território onde se situa a sua reserva, a maior dos Estados Unidos, estendendo-se pelos estados do Utah, do Arizona e do Novo México. Sobre este árido cenário em várias tonalidades de ocre, polvilhados aqui e ali de verde, caracterizado por planícies e planaltos desérticos e ravinas inóspitas, escreveu a poetisa Joy Harjo, também ela pertencente a um povo indígena, que eu já conhecia de “Ela tinha alguns cavalos”.
Esta terra é um poema de areia ocre e queimada que jamais poderia escrever, a não ser que o papel fosse o sacramento do céu, e a tinta a linha quebrada de cavalos selvagens a cambalear no horizonte a vários quilómetros de distância. Ainda assim, será que alguma coisa escrita tem importância para a terra, o vento e o céu?
Nestes pequenos textos de grande lirismo, há não só cavalos mas também borboletas e corvos contra um céu imenso, o movimento nesta paisagem estagnada de areia, terra, rochas, todas as manifestações telúricas captadas pela lente de Stephen Strom. Complementando-se a imagem e a escrita, é impossível fazer jus a este livro com citações não acompanhadas das respectivas fotografias.
Tudo o que é importante está aqui. Tudo o que continuará a ter importância nos próximos milhares de anos continuará a estar aqui. Ao longe, aproxima-se a criança que eras há alguns anos. Vê como ri enquanto persegue uma borboleta branca.
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September 14, 2019Joy Harjo - Native American (Navajo) poetė, muzikantė, rašytoja, šiemet (2019) nominuota U.S. Poet Laureate.
Pirmai pažinčiai pasirinkau šią plonytę poetinių miniatiūrų knygelę iš jos ankstyvosios kūrybos su astronomo S. Strom fotografijomis.
***
This land is a poem of ochre and burnt sand I could never write,
unless paper were the sacrament of sky, and ink the broken line
of wild horses staggering the horizon several miles away. Even
then, does anything written ever matter to the earth, wind, and
sky?
***
If you look with the mind of the swirling earth near Shiprock
you become the land, beautiful. And understand how three
crows at the edge of highway, laughing, become three crows
at the edge of the world, laughing.
***
It's true the landscape forms the mind. If I stand here long
enough I'll learn how to sing. None of that country & western
heartbreak stuff, or operatic duels, but something cool as the
blues, or close to the sound of a Navajo woman singing early in
the morning.
Pirmai pažinčiai pasirinkau šią plonytę poetinių miniatiūrų knygelę iš jos ankstyvosios kūrybos su astronomo S. Strom fotografijomis.
***
This land is a poem of ochre and burnt sand I could never write,
unless paper were the sacrament of sky, and ink the broken line
of wild horses staggering the horizon several miles away. Even
then, does anything written ever matter to the earth, wind, and
sky?
***
If you look with the mind of the swirling earth near Shiprock
you become the land, beautiful. And understand how three
crows at the edge of highway, laughing, become three crows
at the edge of the world, laughing.
***
It's true the landscape forms the mind. If I stand here long
enough I'll learn how to sing. None of that country & western
heartbreak stuff, or operatic duels, but something cool as the
blues, or close to the sound of a Navajo woman singing early in
the morning.
August 4, 2024
What a unique booklet, a seamless blend of prose poems and landscape photography of Navajo Nation.
July 18, 2012
Joy Harjo transports us to where we need to be in the world not "of it."
February 8, 2018
Truly endearing! This piece took me straight home, and the pictures- the beautiful pictures taken of my homeland is what will always call out to me wherever I am, wherever I may go- captures the words in all its glory. For anyone who loves landscape, this will truly amplify any and all experiences:
"I can hear the sizzle of newborn stars, and know anything of meaning, of the fierce magic emerging here. I am witness to flexible eternity, the evolving past, and I know we will live forever, as dust or breath in the face of stars, in the shifting pattern of winds." (pg. 56)
On a side note, mud hills [in the accompanying page] is amazing as it is in its dry form but its true beauty lies after a blissful rainstorm whether in spring, summer or fall and so much more when snow blankets the terrain <3 Home! <3
"I can hear the sizzle of newborn stars, and know anything of meaning, of the fierce magic emerging here. I am witness to flexible eternity, the evolving past, and I know we will live forever, as dust or breath in the face of stars, in the shifting pattern of winds." (pg. 56)
On a side note, mud hills [in the accompanying page] is amazing as it is in its dry form but its true beauty lies after a blissful rainstorm whether in spring, summer or fall and so much more when snow blankets the terrain <3 Home! <3
July 16, 2022
I had to keep in mind that the photography was from 1989, and when I did that I appreciated it a lot more. This was more like poetic commentary / poetic descriptions of the photographs by Harjo, not really formatted in the way I would expect poetry to be. It was still lyrical and unique and wonderful. I’m a little disappointed though, that this was focused on the Navajo Nation and yet no Dine voices were included or featured or focused in this work, and that a non-Indigenous man was the featured photographer.
June 2, 2020
I wish the pictures were larger. Beautiful photos and beautiful words. "Understand the patience of stones" is a phrase that will stay with me and come to mind whenever I see this beautiful landscape.
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February 28, 2023“anything that matters is here. anything that will continue to matter in the next several thousand years will continue to be here.” a nice one-sitting read and my first photography & poetry joint collection - felt such a pang from the photos of/lines about the same vantage in two seasons!
January 15, 2025
“Posso escutar o crepitar das estrelas recém-nascidas, e saber que qualquer coisa de significado, de feroz magia está a emergir aqui. Testemunho a eternidade flexível, o passado em evolução, e sei que viveremos para sempre, como pó ou sopro na face das estrelas, no padrão mutável dos ventos.”
May 10, 2020
numinous
November 6, 2021
Beautiful poetry and photography combined.
November 23, 2021
This tiny book is perfect.
February 14, 2022
Calls me back to myself and makes my heart fly.
January 16, 2025
Visually and emotionally stunning! Most gentle and nurturing poetry defined by the violent land and mystifying Navajo country.
August 10, 2025
Breathtaking
April 22, 2014
This small book is a volume in the Sun Tracks series, and American Indian Literary Series. Among the editorial committee members are N. Scott Momaday and Leslie Marmon Silko.
This book combines the subtle, naturalistic poetry of Harjo with the photographs of Stephen Strom. The book celebrates the spirit of the sacred earth.
The photos and poems mainly relate to the Arizona desert: "This land is a poem of ochre and burnt sand."
"Moencopi Rise stuns me ... I contemplate the frozen memory of stones. Nearby are the footprints of dinosaurs, climbing toward the next century."
Beautiful ... and haunting ode to the stark desert.
This book combines the subtle, naturalistic poetry of Harjo with the photographs of Stephen Strom. The book celebrates the spirit of the sacred earth.
The photos and poems mainly relate to the Arizona desert: "This land is a poem of ochre and burnt sand."
"Moencopi Rise stuns me ... I contemplate the frozen memory of stones. Nearby are the footprints of dinosaurs, climbing toward the next century."
Beautiful ... and haunting ode to the stark desert.
April 12, 2014
Such beautiful words!
May 15, 2020
A favorite- I return to Secrets constantly and still find new ones. Beautiful.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews