Vox Populi
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Naomi Shihab Nye: Every day as a wide field, every page
1
Standing outside
staring at a tree
gentles our eyes
We cheer
to see fireflies
winking again
Where have our friends been
all the long hours?
Minds stretching
beyond the field
become
their own skies
Windows doors
grow more
important
Look through a word
swing that sentence
wide open
Kneeling outside
to find
sturdy green
glistening blossoms
under the breeze
that carries us silently
2
And there were so many more poems to read!
Countless friends to listen to.
We didn’t have to be in the same room—
the great modern magic.
Everywhere together now.
Even scared together now
from all points of the globe
which lessened it somehow.
Hopeful together too, exchanging
winks in the dark, the little lights blinking.
When your hope shrinks
you might feel the hope of
someone far away lifting you up.
Hope is the thing …
Hope was always the thing!
What else did we give each other
from such distances?
Breath of syllables,
sing to me from your balcony
please! Befriend me
in the deep space.
When you paused for a poem
it could reshape the day
you had just been living.
~~~~
Copyright © 1995 by Naomi Shihab Nye. Reprinted with the permission of the author. From Words Under the Words: Selected Poems (Far Corner Books, 1995)
Naomi Shihab Nye was born to a Palestinian father and an American mother, and she began composing her first poetry at the age of six. In total, she has published or contributed to over 30 volumes of poetry. Her works include poetry, young-adult fiction, picture books, and novels. Nye received the 2013 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature in honor of her entire body of work as a writer, and the Poetry Foundation designated her the Young People’s Poet Laureate for the 2019–21 term.
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in first i encountered the poet Nye and her work through Vox Populi. Based on that i ordered her book The Tiny Journalist while i was in Abu Dhabi, and it arrived from London. In Nye i found a powerful Palestinian voice, yet it transcends the narrow national thinking. Becoming closer to broader humanity that it lost its innocence. Which Nye washes on the riverbank alonside with the woman of Palestine as if all of them were trying to clean the sad memories of the Nakba, thd looted homes and the burden of the key of return. When se reach a dead end we have to look for alternative history in order to stay alive and to nring up our chuldren. This poem is a warm voice speaking to the child within us. And to the future.
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Well-said, Saleh. Yes, Naomi’s is an indispensable voice.
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Hope’s great emissary in our world today. Her example lights our path in the darknesses of broad daylight, when we’re supposed to be able to see, and admittedly cannot.
She knows her way, let your’s become the same.
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perfectly said, Sean. Thank you.
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Just a lovely, gentle, uplifting and supportive poem.
To the poet, thank you!
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John Edward Simms comments: “Naomi Shihab’s poems always make me feel a little better in a nasty world. It’s like finding a rose in an outhouse.”
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How moving and relevant this poem is, particularly the second section. I am always grateful for the hard earned grace of Naomi Shihab Nye’s poems. That grace is badly needed in this dark moment.
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Naomi Shihab Nye, an outstanding poet, writes with her heart and pen. I am so grateful she lives in this world. Elise Kazanjian
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Thanks, Elise. I love Naomi’s poems.
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Me too. Her poems seem to embrace us all. So Cool.
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