Naomi Shihab Nye

Judging a book by its cover does you little good with this poetry collection, Words Under the Words, as the older woman on the cover is not the Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye, but her grandmother who died at 106 back in 1994. For years I would see the book and wonder just how old is that poet. Instead, this collection of her selected poetry (drawn from her three previous books) is vibrant and very much alive. She currently lives in Texas, travels the world, and creates poetry show more that shows well how we share a common humanity with her beautifully insightful poetry. William Stafford says the following about Nye, “She is a champion of the literature of encouragement and heart. Reading her work enhances life.”

I find her writing to be very accessible and easy to relate to. The following are some lines that spoke to me from some of her poems.

WHEN YOU LUNCH
"What makes a man with a gun seem bigger
than a man with almonds?"

STREETS
“A man leaves the world
and the streets he lived on
grow a little shorter.”

TWO COUNTRIES
“Skin remembers how long the years grow
when skin is not touched”

THE ART OF DISAPPEARING
“Walk around feeling like a leaf.
Know you could tumble any second.
Then decide what to do with your time.”

KINDNESS
“Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.”

THE ENDLESS INDIAN NIGHTS
“How the same Shah who commanded thousands
to build the Taj Mahal could later be jailed for life
by a single son is something to think about
during the endless Indian nights.”
[The Shah had the hands of the key masons cut off, so that they wouldn’t ever build anything to rival it.]

Naomi Shihab Nye is an important voice who crosses cultural divides both internationally and within the United States. For all that she brings to her poetry, it always remains clear, smart, and compassionate. She has now joined the group of my favorite poets that I’m always watching for anything new. If you haven’t read her, know that her writing is a reward waiting for you. show less

Poetry
Naomi Shihab Nye, Lisa Desimini (Illustrator)
Famous
Wings Press
Hardcover, 978-1609404499, 32 pgs., $15.95
September 1, 2015

My Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives two definitions for "famous." The first is "widely known." The second is "honored for achievement." Naomi Shihab Nye, novelist, poet, beloved of Texas and famous in both senses, was often asked if she was famous by schoolchildren. She found the question "confounding" and wanted to know why whether she was famous mattered and what show more it meant. Shihab Nye's answer was "everything is famous if you notice it" and eventually became the poem, "Famous."

In this poem, Shihab Nye makes the point that every home is famous to its inhabitants, tears are "famous, briefly, to the cheek" and assures that each of us is famous to our families and friends. But my favorite part of this poem is when she tells us who she wants to be famous to:

I want to be famous to shuffling men
who smile while crossing streets,
sticky children in grocery lines,
famous as the one who smiled back.

Now that gives us something to aspire to. The lesson is sweetly inspirational with nary a cliche in sight, dedicated to "Your secret shining self. And to anyone who thinks nobody notices them." Lisa Desimini's illustrations are whimsical and suffused with rich color, including a playful portrait of the the poet and her famous braid.

This lovely little volume from Wings Press is appropriate not only for young children but also as a gift in this season of graduations. "Widely known" and "honored for achievement." In this Kardashian-Trump world, it's important that the children we are raising understand the differences between the two. show less

Words Under the Words: Selected Poems brings together poems from three of Naomi Nye’s previous collections. Nye’s poems take readers on the journey from regret to overflowing happiness to celebration of cultural identity. The entire range of human emotions seems to be in the words under these words. Perhaps what resonates most is Nye’s ability to take what many would perceive as ordinary, uninspiring moments, and amplify them to reveal emotional and metaphorical significance. In show more “Trying to Name What Doesn’t Change,” Nye takes an idle conversation about the arrival of a train and turns it into a reflection on change and contextual significance. This set of poetry might appeal to teens interested in poems with a blend of lyric and narrative content, as well as an examination of some of the heavier topics teens are learning to grapple with.

4P, 5Q show less

I read this collection twenty years ago when it first came out, and had at the time only the vaguest awareness of Gaza or the Palestinians' struggles under Israel's rule. I was more aware of the more publicized wars--those prior to and since 9/11--but even so, I didn't have the awareness of the rest of the world that I do now. And yet, this collection stuck with me and made me a forever fan of Nye's work.

To read this collection as a whole two decades later, and have the poems of violence and show more autonomy and struggle be just so timely (if not more so, somehow) than they were then is heartbreaking. The sheer powerlessness communicated in some of these poems, rife with quiet outrage, makes the genocide of Palestinians which is ongoing all the more terrible, even in Nye's moments of hope. Because, of course, the collection is not only built of these matters or of a rejection of violence. It is built of hope, of quiet moments, of a treasuring of the personal and the individual. For this reason, we can read Nye's words and poems and do more than suffer and cry--we can continue to hope, and treasure what is here as we continue to fight, gaining insight and smiles along with the tears offered here.

I absolutely recommend this collection. Many of the poems are not written in relation to the wars I've mentioned, despite that over-arching theme, and so there is something here for any poetry reader. And plenty of wisdom, as well as gorgeous lines and thoughts. show less