Sacred Water by Leslie Marmon Silko
"Sacred Water" by Leslie Marmon Silko is a unique collection that merges prose poetry with photography, highlighting the significance of water in the context of Southwestern land stewardship. Silko draws upon her family traditions to craft a multimedia experience that reflects her deep respect for nature and its elements. The collection features striking black-and-white photographs depicting various natural scenes such as water, clouds, mountains, and local flora and fauna, which complement the written prose. Through her work, Silko emphasizes water's essential role in sustaining life, maintaining ecological balance, and serving as a vital component of spiritual practices. This limited edition text serves as both an artistic expression and a cultural reflection, inviting readers to consider the interconnectedness of water and the environment. Overall, "Sacred Water" is a poignant exploration of the themes of nature, tradition, and sustainability, offering insights that resonate with diverse cultural perspectives.
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Sacred Water by Leslie Marmon Silko
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1993
Type of work: Prose poems and photography
The Work
Leslie Marmon Silko’s commitment to shared husbandry of the land of the Southwest is perhaps nowhere better and more simply articulated than in this privately published, limited edition collection of prose poems and photography. Silko incorporates her family traditions in photography to create a multimedia text. The black-and-white pictorial images of water, clouds, mountains, rocks, reptiles, and flora nicely accompany the written text, which shows Silko’s understanding of the importance of water in terms of sustenance, ecological balance, and religious practice.
Bibliography
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Antell, J. A. “Momaday, Welch, and Silko: Expressing the Feminine Principle Through Male Alienation.” American Indian Quarterly 12 (Summer, 1988): 213-220.
Chavkin, Allan, ed. Leslie Marmon Silko’s “Ceremony”: A Casebook. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Danielson, Linda. “The Storytellers in Storyteller.” Studies in American Indian Literatures 5, no. 1 (1989): 21-31.
Dunsmore, Roger. “No Boundaries: On Silko’s Ceremony.” In Earth’s Mind: Essays in Native Literature. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1997.
Garcia, Reyes. “Senses of Place in Ceremony.” MELUS 10 (Winter, 1983): 37-48.
Hirsh, B. A. “The Telling Which Continues: Oral Tradition and the Written Word in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Storyteller.” American Indian Quarterly 12 (Winter, 1988): 1-26.
Jahner, Elaine. “Leslie Marmon Silko.” In Handbook of Native American Literature, edited by Andrew Wiget. New York: Garland, 1996.
Lincoln, Kenneth. “Grandmother Storyteller: Leslie Silko.” In Native American Renaissance. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
Nelson, Robert M. “Rewriting Ethnography: The Embedded Texts in Leslie Silko’s Ceremony.” In Telling the Stories: Essays on American Indian Literatures and Cultures. New York: Peter Lang, 2001.
Sax, Richard. “One World, Many Tribes: Crosscultural Influences in Silko’s Almanac of the Dead.” In Celebration of Indigenous Thought and Expression. Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.: Lake Superior State University Press, 1996.