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A Haunting Reverence: Meditations on a Northern Land
From the vast grandeur of the Great Plains to the dark solitude of the northern woods, from the fierce intensity of a sudden summer storm to the quiet redemption of a perfect blanket of snow, Kent Nerburn pays homage to the land that has shaped the lives and cultures of northern people. Nerburn's essays range broadly from deeply personal narratives of the author's experiences among the Ojibwe, to dark meditations on the uncompromising winters of northern Minnesota, to mystical celebrations of water and light.
Throughout, Nerburn writes with an incandescent radiance and intellectual passion that are at once elemental, provocative, and startling. Deeply grounded in the struggle for authentic spiritual awakening - a path based on awareness rather than explanation - Nerburn's words illuminate the intricate subtleties of nature with intimacy and power.
Throughout, Nerburn writes with an incandescent radiance and intellectual passion that are at once elemental, provocative, and startling. Deeply grounded in the struggle for authentic spiritual awakening - a path based on awareness rather than explanation - Nerburn's words illuminate the intricate subtleties of nature with intimacy and power.
173 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1996
65 people want to read
About the author
Kent Nerburn
37 books466 followersI'm a child of the 60's, a son of the north, and a lover of dogs.
Grew up in a crackerbox post-war bungalow outside of Minneapolis with my mother and father, two younger sisters, various dogs and cats, and a neighborhood full of rugrat kids playing outside until called in for the night.
Studied American Studies at the University of Minnesota, Religious Studies and Humanities at Stanford University, received a Ph.D. in Religion and Art in a joint program at Graduate Theological Union and the University of California at Berkeley. Lots of learning, lots of awards. Phi Beta Kappa. Summa cum Laude. Lots of stuff that looks good on paper.
But just as important, an antique restorer's shop in Marburg, Germany; the museums of Florence; a sculpture studio in the back alleys of Pietrasanta, Italy; an Indian reservation in the forests of northern Minnesota; and, perhaps above all, the American road.
Always a watcher, always a wanderer, perhaps too empathetic for my own good, more concerned with the "other" than the "self", always more interested in what people believed than in what they thought. A friend of the ordinary and the life of the streets.
Twenty years as a sculptor -- over-life sized images hand-chiseled from large tree trunks -- efforts to embody emotional and spiritual states in wood. Then, still searching, years helping young people collect memories of the tribal elders on the Red Lake Ojibwe reservation in the Minnesota north. Then writing,
always writing, finding a voice and even a calling, helping Native America tell its story.
A marriage, children, a home on a pine-rimmed lake near the Minnesota-Canadian border.
Book after book, seventeen in all, ever seeking the heartbeat of people's belief. Journeys, consolations, the caring observer, always the teacher, always the learner. Ever mindful of the wise counsel of an Ojibwe elder, "Always teach by stories, because stories lodge deep in the heart."
Through grace and good luck, an important trilogy (Neither Wolf nor Dog, The Wolf at Twilight, and The Girl who Sang to the Buffalo), a film, Minnesota Book Awards, South Dakota book of the year, many "community reads," book sales around the world.
In the end, a reluctant promoter, a quiet worker, a seeker of an authentic American spirituality, more concerned with excellence than quantity. Proud to be referred to as "a guerilla theologian" and honored to be called "the one writer who can respectfully bridge the gap between native and non-Native cultures". But more honored still to hear a twelve-year-old girl at one of my readings whisper to her mom, "He's a really nice man."
At heart, just an ordinary person, grateful to be a father and a husband, more impressed by kindness than by power, doing what I can with the skills that I have to pay my rent for my time on earth. And trying, always trying, to live by Sitting Bull's entreaty: "Come let us put our minds together to see what kind of lives we can create for our children."
And petting every dog that I can.
Grew up in a crackerbox post-war bungalow outside of Minneapolis with my mother and father, two younger sisters, various dogs and cats, and a neighborhood full of rugrat kids playing outside until called in for the night.
Studied American Studies at the University of Minnesota, Religious Studies and Humanities at Stanford University, received a Ph.D. in Religion and Art in a joint program at Graduate Theological Union and the University of California at Berkeley. Lots of learning, lots of awards. Phi Beta Kappa. Summa cum Laude. Lots of stuff that looks good on paper.
But just as important, an antique restorer's shop in Marburg, Germany; the museums of Florence; a sculpture studio in the back alleys of Pietrasanta, Italy; an Indian reservation in the forests of northern Minnesota; and, perhaps above all, the American road.
Always a watcher, always a wanderer, perhaps too empathetic for my own good, more concerned with the "other" than the "self", always more interested in what people believed than in what they thought. A friend of the ordinary and the life of the streets.
Twenty years as a sculptor -- over-life sized images hand-chiseled from large tree trunks -- efforts to embody emotional and spiritual states in wood. Then, still searching, years helping young people collect memories of the tribal elders on the Red Lake Ojibwe reservation in the Minnesota north. Then writing,
always writing, finding a voice and even a calling, helping Native America tell its story.
A marriage, children, a home on a pine-rimmed lake near the Minnesota-Canadian border.
Book after book, seventeen in all, ever seeking the heartbeat of people's belief. Journeys, consolations, the caring observer, always the teacher, always the learner. Ever mindful of the wise counsel of an Ojibwe elder, "Always teach by stories, because stories lodge deep in the heart."
Through grace and good luck, an important trilogy (Neither Wolf nor Dog, The Wolf at Twilight, and The Girl who Sang to the Buffalo), a film, Minnesota Book Awards, South Dakota book of the year, many "community reads," book sales around the world.
In the end, a reluctant promoter, a quiet worker, a seeker of an authentic American spirituality, more concerned with excellence than quantity. Proud to be referred to as "a guerilla theologian" and honored to be called "the one writer who can respectfully bridge the gap between native and non-Native cultures". But more honored still to hear a twelve-year-old girl at one of my readings whisper to her mom, "He's a really nice man."
At heart, just an ordinary person, grateful to be a father and a husband, more impressed by kindness than by power, doing what I can with the skills that I have to pay my rent for my time on earth. And trying, always trying, to live by Sitting Bull's entreaty: "Come let us put our minds together to see what kind of lives we can create for our children."
And petting every dog that I can.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 4, 2017
Haunting and important. A beautiful collection of essays that do indeed hum with reference for the land.
September 23, 2008
I would say this is my favorite by Nerburn except there are 3 contenders at least for that position and I am content with that grouping. This one, though - this one got me. It got me in a spiritual way that the more intentionally spiritual ones (Simple Truths, for instance) do not. Those are lessons to be memorized. Haunting Reverence mirrors me. I have not had most of the experiences that Nerburn has so this seems odd, yet I recognized things as I read them. "Recognized" them as what I would observe, I guess, had I been in the place he describes, doing what he was doing. I remember one story about a funeral - not a church funeral. And I remember a view over a lake that he tells about. And fog. See? I have images as if they were my memories, but I know these came from this book. The other ones I love - Neither Wolf Nor Dog, Road Angels, Chief Joseph - are masterful. But they are gifts from him to us readers. This one is simply shared karma or something.
August 19, 2015
I love this author to pieces. I've heard him twice in Cedar Falls, and his subject matter is dear to my heart. That is, the native Americans who live in Minnesota and the Dakotas.
Not only is he an enthralling speaker and author, but a wise human being. Never patronizing to the Indians, he is respected among them as a friend. The only reason this book didn't receive 5 stars, is that those were bestowed on my 2 favorites - Wolf at Twilight and Neither Wolf Nor Dog, Nerburn's two books that were intertwined, almost in fictionalized form.
Not only is he an enthralling speaker and author, but a wise human being. Never patronizing to the Indians, he is respected among them as a friend. The only reason this book didn't receive 5 stars, is that those were bestowed on my 2 favorites - Wolf at Twilight and Neither Wolf Nor Dog, Nerburn's two books that were intertwined, almost in fictionalized form.
April 27, 2016
A very poetic and beautiful book with meditations on nature and Native American way of life in Northern Minnesota. I felt like I was reading poetry in portions of the book and a lot of what I read deeply resonated with me. I especially enjoyed all the Native American quotes in the beginning of each story.
July 23, 2009
A moving collection of simple essays.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews