Naomi Shihab Nye

Michaela Csorny

Lizz Bogaard

“I support all people on earth who have bodies like and unlike my body”

- Naomi Shihab Nye

Biography

Born in St. Louis, Missouri

Her mother read her poetry

Told folktales from father

Moved to Jerusalem

Father ministered at Unity School of Christianity

Moved to San Antonio

Traveled around world

“I thought pain had no tongue. Or every tongue at once, supreme translator, sieve.”

- “Arabic”

You can't be, says a Palestinian Christianon the first feast day after Ramadan.So, half-and-half and half-and-half.He sells glass. He knows about broken bits, chips. If you love Jesus you can't loveanyone else. Says he.

- “Half and Half”

“When they arrived at Mecca they would circle the holy places, on foot, many times, they would bend to kiss the earth and return, their lean faces housing mystery.” - “Different Ways to Pray”

Often while we are eating our evening meal you cross our rooms like a thief,touching first the radio and then the loom.Later our dreams begin catching fire around the edges,they burn like paper, we wake with our hands full of ash.

How can we live like this?We need to wake and find our shelves intact,our children slumbering in their quilts.We need dreams the shape of lakes,with mornings in them thick as fish.Shade us while we cast and hook—but nothing else, nothing else.

- “Negotiations With a Volcano”

We will call you "Agua" like the rivers and cool jugs.We will persuade the clouds to nestle around your neckso you may sleep late.We would be happy if you slept forever.We will tend the slopes we plant, singing the songsour grandfathers taught us before we inherited their fear.We will try not to argue among ourselves.When the widow demands extra flour, we will provide it,remembering the smell of incense on the day of our Lord.

Please think of us as we are, tiny, with skins that burn easily.Please notice how we have watered the shrubs around our housesand transplanted the peppers into neat tin cans.Forgive any anger we feel toward the earth,when the rains do not come, or they come too much, and swallow our corn.It is not easy to be this small and live in your shadow.

Characteristics Prose Palestinian topics Dialogue Questions Personification Symbolism

“It’s hard up there. You dig in a box for whatever the moment requires: sweater, wreath, the other half of the walky-talky, and find twelve things you forgot about which delay the original search, since now that you found them you have to think about them. Do I want to keep this, bring it downstairs? Of course your life feels very different from the life you had when you packed it up there. Maybe your life has another kind of room in it now, maybe it feels more crowded. Maybe you think looking at this old ceramic cup with the pocked white glaze that you made in college would uplift you in the mornings. Your search takes on an urgent ratlike quality as you rip paper out of boxes, shredding and piling it. Probably by now you’ve stood up too fast and speared your head on one of the nails that holds the roof shingles down. They’re lined up all along the rafters, poking through, aimed. Now you have to think about tetanus, rusty nails, the hearty human skull. A little dizzy for awhile, you’re too occupied to remember what sent you up into the dark.”

- “The Attic and Its Nails”

Criticism Gives useful life lessons on how to treat

people Shows the “interconnectedness of all people”

well Gives “subtle influences that shape lives” to

show readers how to lead a better life Uses questions to clearly get her theme

across Creates metaphors so readers can relate to

her themes

Our Response to the Critics Agree that a theme can easily be taken away

from any of her works Also noticed her poems are about life lessons

and how to be a better person Uses literary devices so readers can

comprehend her themes and opinions

“I am looking for the human who admits his flaws Who shocks the adversary By being kinder not stronger What would that be like? We don't even know” ― Naomi Shihab Nye, Honeybee

Works CitedBarnes, Alison. "Sample Responce to a FieldPoem." Sunstein/Chiseri- Strater. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2012.

Godlas, Dr. Alan. "Letter from Naomi Shihab Nye To Any Would-Be Terrorists.” Islamic Studies, Islam, Arabic, and Religion . N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb.

2012.

Nye, Naomi Shihab. "Different Ways To Pray." Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2012.

Nye, Naomi Shihab. Fuel. Series in American poets continuum series ; v.47. Rochester, NY: BOA Editions, c1998. Book.

Nye, Naomi Shihab. Habibi. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks, 1999, c1997. Book.

Nye, Naomi Shihab. Honeybee. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books, c2008. Book.

Naomi Shihab Nye. "Jerusalem." N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2012.

"Naomi Shihab Nye on Kindness." Triumph of the Spirit. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2012.

"Naomi Shihab Nye Quotes ." GoodReads. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.

"Naomi Shihab Nye Quotes." ThinkExist.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2012.

Nye, Naomi Shihab. Red Suitcase. Brockport, NY: BOA Editions LTD, 1994. Book.

Reisman, Rosemary M. Canfield.Critical Survey of Poetry. Pasadena, Calif: Salem Press, c2011. Book.