Vox Populi
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Naomi Shihab Nye, Debra Winger: Zero
Actor Debra Winger and poet Naomi Shihab Nye, longtime friends, have been giving each other weekly writing prompts. Most recently, 2 short writings on Debra’s prompt ZERO, describe responses to this moment.
zero
where do they go where do they go
where it’s safe where it’s not zero.
zero sense in killing other people
because your own have been killed
for so long, but so many someones
must have felt boiling inside convincing
others to boil too and everything boiling
together recklessly was a disaster
not only ending so many beautiful lives but
placing their own beautiful people on the
firing line where they have already been
for 70 years, zero sense zero accomplishment
zero compassion zero gain. there was music.
there were neighborhoods.
I can’t stop thinking about classrooms
bedrooms pets toys strawberry patches
altars bent skillets spatulas. The skirts
of little girls. The pink. I can’t stop thinking.
Naomi Shihab Nye
~~~
zero
Hard to be with my perfect little girl.
knowing nothing of cruelty.
why tell the babies there is a zero
before they count to three
Holy Zero
Darkness that is peace
Take Over!
Make it Quiet!
Enliven them so they will not kill
Again they do the same that was done
and call it something else
The Women have been telling you
For centuries
to Stop.
And still they have babies you kill.
This is not writing or praying or begging.
This is Zero Power over any thing.
Debra Winger
Copyright 2023 Naomi Shihab Nye and Debra Winger. All rights reserved.
Naomi Shihab Nye is a Palestinian-American poet and writer. In 2019, the Poetry Foundation designated her the Young People’s Poet Laureate. Her many books include Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems (Greenwillow Books, 2020).
Debra Winger is an American actress born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio into a Jewish family. Winger starred in the films An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Terms of Endearment (1983), and Shadowlands (1993), each of which earned her a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress.
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I posted the poems on Facebook, shared from Barbara Huntington’s post. One “friend” went on a tirade on my page then sent a private message that it was propaganda and she’s “surprised that someone of your intelligence didn’t see it.” Interesting.
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Yes, it’s strange that criticism of Israel is seen as anti-semitism. Thanks for posting the poems and for commenting here.
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I love you both Naomi and Debra. (Naomi, you’re already my sweet sister, hermana.) Thank you both for saying what so many of us feel helpless to say. Who do we say it to and where? Love and sorrow poetry Censored?! Really?! There is not one hate word in your poems. We are a better world than this. I don’t want to believe that humans have lost compassion? No one gains from slaughter. I don’t know who is listening when we pray. I also can’t stop thinking of especially the innocent and beautiful children. Thank you so much for sharing your poetry of love and pain never mentioning hate. I wish I could share your poems on Facebook. Thank you for being good humans. Tish Hinojosa
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What a lovely letter, Tish. Thank you!
M.
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The Women have been telling you
For centuries
to Stop.
We have, we have. We, women, have asked this for centuries: STOP! But I also know that innumerable men: sons, brothers, lovers, husbands, fathers, like us, and with us, also beg: stop!
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Yes, we ask them to stop, or at the very least to spare the children.
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Thank you Naomi and Debra. I can’t stop thinking either.
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Facebook won’t let me post this. The irony is palpable, when that platform is filled with hate speech and lies.
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I thought I posted. Will go back and see
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Somehow my post on Facebook got through for now
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After twice warning me that this material went against the platform’s standards and that I would be banned if I tried to post material of this kind, FB posted the poems in the end. So happy ending.
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Yes, voices of reason and compassion are dangerous to the powerful. Thanks for being persistent, Robbi.
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I can’t stop thinking. Thank you Naomi and Debra.
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“ and still they have babies you kill” “there was music, there ere neighborhoods”. Thank you
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Excellent….appreciate this posting. “I can’t stop thinking…” Agree.
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Thanks, Mel.
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