Naomi Shihab Nye Poems

Hit Title Date Added
21.
Jerusalem

I’m not interested in
who suffered the most.
I’m interested in
people getting over it.
...

22.
The Turtle Shrine Near Chittagong

Humps of shell emerge from dark water.
Believers toss hunks of bread,
hoping the fat reptilian heads
will loom forth from the murk
...

23.
My Uncle’s Favorite Coffee Shop

Serum of steam rising from the cup,
what comfort to be known personally by Barbara,
her perfect pouring hand and starched ascot,
known as the two easy eggs and the single pancake,
...

24.
Arabic

The man with laughing eyes stopped smiling
to say, "Until you speak Arabic,
you will not understand pain."
...

25.
Shoulders

A man crosses the street in rain,
stepping gently, looking two times north and south,
because his son is asleep on his shoulder.
...

26.
Trying To Name What Doesn’t Change

Roselva says the only thing that doesn’t change
is train tracks. She’s sure of it.
The train changes, or the weeds that grow up spidery
by the side, but not the tracks.
...

27.
Fundamentalism

Because the eye has a short shadow or
it is hard to see over heads in the crowd?
If everyone else seems smarter
but you need your own secret?
...

28.
Many Asked Me Not to Forget Them

Where do you keep all these people?
The shoemaker with his rumpled cough.
The man who twisted straws into brooms.
My teacher, oh my teacher. I will always cry
...

29.
Alaska

The phone rang in the middle of the Fairbanks night and was always a
wrong number for the Klondike Lounge. Not here, I'd say sleepily. Different
...

30.
San Antonio

Tonight I lingered over your name,
the delicate assembly of vowels
a voice inside my head.
...

Close
Error Success