The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Tue 1/1/2008)

[RetroLounge]

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 every where
like a shadow or a friend.

Naomi Shihab Nye

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Descending from a half-Palestinian and half-American family tree, Naomi Shihab Nye is an appealing figure paving the way for ethnic poets and young poets alike. Although she was born in Missouri, she is well traveled. She lived in Jerusalem but currently resides in Texas with her son, Madison, and husband, Michael, who is a photographer. The fact that Nye originated from such a transient and ethnic family acted as a springboard for her future career as an author. She is known for her essays and anthologies of the Middle East, which includes, perhaps her most famous Middle Eastern based anthology, Different Ways to Pray, published in 1980. However, despite her wide range of exposures to other cultures, Naomi Shihab Nye often chooses to write about the little details of life that we often take for granted. She says that she wanted to remember all of the details in her eventful and fruitful life. Consequentially, she keeps a journal. She has had a hunger to write poetry since seven years of age, when she composed her first poem. Since then she received an education from Trinity University located in Texas, along with many awards. Her works Different Ways to Pray and Hugging the Jukebox won the Voertman Poetry Prize. She has also earned three Pushcart Prizes. Her books Hugging the Jukebox and This Same Sky have been selected as worthy by the American Library Association. Naomi Shihab Nye has been featured on NPR and Prairie Home Companion. She has been granted a Guggenheim fellowship. Nye has also appeared on more than one PBS documentaries. She has received the Jane Adams Children’s Book Award and The Paterson Poetry Prize. Naomi Shihab Nye has written or selected numerous works including The Red Suitcase, Salting the Ocean, Habibi, This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems From Around The World, Yellow Glove, Words under the Words, Never in a Hurry, and Fuel. In addition to being a noteworthy author, Nye is also a singer and a teacher of a poetry workshop and a first-year MSA seminar

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:hi:

RL

[lizziegrace]

1. "like a shadow or a friend"

Thank you for posting this. :hug:

[RetroLounge]

4. Thanks for suggesting it...

Good way to begin the new year...

:hug:

RL

[lizziegrace]

6. ...

:hug:


You're a treasure, my friend.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. sometimes I think my shadow is my only friend.

and I know sorrow holds my hand.

[RetroLounge]

7. ...

:hug:

RL

[xchrom]

3. ...

how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. My dear Retro!

Good morning, and happy new year to you...

What a stunning poem to start the new year with too!

I really identify with this one...

Just beautiful...

Especially this verse:

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.

Thank you, sweetie...

:hug:

[hisownpetard]

8. Thanks, RL. She's one of my favorites (as are you, of course).

Happy New Year to you and yours!!
Peace in 2008!

Susan:hi:

[RetroLounge]

9. and HNY to you and your also!

:hi:

2008 is going to rock!

RL