Naomi Shihab Nye: 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, … Continue reading
Naomi Shihab Nye: Different Ways to Pray
There was the method of kneeling, a fine method, if you lived in a country where stones were smooth. The women dreamed wistfully of bleached courtyards, hidden corners where knee … Continue reading
Michael Simms: What is Poetry For?
A few days ago, an old priest who was a colleague of my wife’s passed away, and Eva came home from work angry at the world. I was worried; Eva … Continue reading
Naomi Shihab Nye: Blood
“A true Arab knows how to catch a fly in his hands,” my father would say. And he’d prove it, cupping the buzzer instantly while the host with the swatter … Continue reading
Naomi Shihab Nye: On Inspiration
“I can never imagine how someone would fall in love with poetry and stop reading poems. But I think that people often talk themselves out of responding…” This video is … Continue reading
Naomi Shihab Nye: “Letters My Prez Is Not Sending” and “Ted Kooser Is My President”
Naomi Shihab Nye reads two poems at the 2009 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival: “Letters My Prez Is Not Sending” and “Ted Kooser Is My President.” This video is included here by … Continue reading
Naomi Shihab Nye: The Art Of Teaching Poetry
Why is it that so many people say they don’t “get” poetry? As teachers, how can we approach poetry so that it doesn’t seem to our students like a puzzle … Continue reading
Video: “One Boy Told Me” by Naomi Shihab Nye
Naomi Shihab Nye may be the most loved poet in America. Here she reads a poem that evokes a young boy’s imagination.
Naomi Shihab Nye: On growing up in Ferguson and Palestine
I grew up in Ferguson, Mo. No one ever heard of it, unless you lived elsewhere in St. Louis County. Then my family moved to Palestine – my father’s first … Continue reading
Naomi Shihab Nye: Questions in July
Where does terror come from? Possibly from people who are terrified. Why does it hurt more when the killed were boys on a beach? They had the breath of the sea in their … Continue reading
Naomi Shihab Nye: Two Poems
To Israel Are you sleeping well? What do you tell your children, studying history? It was so evil, that people could herd us and hurt us, steal our homes … Continue reading
