Naomi Shihab Nye
Born
in St. Louis, Missouri, The United States
March 12, 1952
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Habibi
14 editions
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published
1997
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Words Under the Words: Selected Poems
2 editions
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published
1994
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19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East
7 editions
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published
1994
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The Turtle of Oman
7 editions
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published
2014
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Fuel
4 editions
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published
1998
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Honeybee: Poems Short Prose
6 editions
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published
2008
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A Maze Me: Poems for Girls
by
5 editions
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published
2005
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What Have You Lost?
by
4 editions
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published
1999
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Sitti's Secrets
by
6 editions
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published
1994
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Red Suitcase
6 editions
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published
1994
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“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.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing
inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
Colombia”
― Words Under the Words: Selected Poems
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.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing
inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
Colombia”
― Words Under the Words: Selected Poems
“I love the solitude of reading. I love the deep dive into someone else's story, the delicious ache of a last page.”
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―
“The person you have known a long tme is embedded in you like a jewel. The person you have just met casts out a few glistening beams & you are fascinated to see more of them. How many more are there? With someone you've barely met the curiosity is intoxicating.”
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Topics Mentioning This Author
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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Wild Things: YA G...: Multicultural books about Asia/The Middle East | 10 | 142 | Dec 31, 2010 08:47AM | |
Middle East/North...: 2011 Stop (3)- The Levant /sham | 54 | 89 | Jun 08, 2011 12:14PM | |
The Seasonal Read...: * Summer Challenge 2011 Completed Tasks (DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS) | 2636 | 795 | Aug 31, 2011 09:18PM | |
The County Library: 2011 December Reading Challenge | 23 | 56 | Jan 04, 2012 01:56PM | |
Historical Fictio...:
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48 | 153 | Jun 01, 2012 04:14AM | |
The Seasonal Read...:
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2516 | 691 | Aug 31, 2013 09:04PM | |
Reading with Style:
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685 | 109 | Aug 31, 2013 09:06PM | |
The Seasonal Read...:
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2511 | 615 | Feb 28, 2014 09:00PM | |
Reading with Style:
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1074 | 192 | May 31, 2014 09:05PM |
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