Secrets from the Center of the World (Sun Tracks) [Paperback]

Joy Harjo (Author), Stephen Strom (Author)

Book Description

Series: Sun Tracks | Publication Date: July 1, 1989

"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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A rare symbiotic relationship of complementary visions. . . . Rare beauty." —Northwest Review "Deeply affecting and memorable. . . . An artist to be followed." —Parabola "A joy to behold, and a delight to read." —The Journal of Arizona History "A testament to the earth's living spirit. This volume is a book of beauty, pleasing to the ear and eye. . . . Moving prose and colorful photographs that originated in the heart and speak to us of the center of our being." —American Indian Culture and Research Journal

About the Author

Joy Harjo is currently teaching at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Product Details

• Paperback: 75 pages
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press; First Edition edition (July 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816511136
• ISBN-13: 978-0816511136
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #408,878 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Living poetry, connecting all things, March 10, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Secrets from the Center of the World (Sun Tracks) (Paperback)

Nowhere have I read poetry that so completely encompasses the Native American view of the connectedness of all things. Harjo's writings, coupled with Steven Strom's photography of "Indian country" make this a book that I read over and over, each time drawing something new. It is one of the only books I've ever read that convinces me that language is "alive", as alive as we are, as alive as the shoulder bone of a mountian, as alive as a comet which streaks its way across the sky. It is my favorite book. Period.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Joy Harjo perfect words to Stephen Strom's photos, May 17, 2000

By 

M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Secrets from the Center of the World (Sun Tracks) (Paperback)

Joy Harjo is a multi-talented artist - poetry and music (with Poetic Justice) available. Here she has paired her words to Stephen Strom's photographs. His photographs of landscapes have an unusual and very effective use of colors ... many reminding me of the softness of watercolor or pastels.

Joy Harjo has provided text - somewhere between prose and prose poems - that engage the accompanying photographs to create a mythic sense. For example a photo of rose-tinted desert sand with no sky (Overlook west of Tuba City)is accompanied by "Two sisters meet on horseback. They gossip: a cousin eloped with someone's husband, twins were born to his wife. One is headed toward Tsaile, and the other to Round Rock. Their horses are rose sand, with manes of ashy rock."

An excellent book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Spirit of the Land, March 8, 2011

By 

roadman - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Secrets from the Center of the World (Sun Tracks) (Paperback)

This book is as close as you can get to the landscape it depicts, short of setting foot on it yourself. The ethereal nature of the semi-miniature photographic images in conjunction with Joy Harjo's prose poems generate the same kind of creative disorientation as being in the land itself. This book never fails to open my eyes in a new way. Highly recommended.