I recently read Naomi Shihab Nye’s Honeybee, and I really enjoyed it. I admit that parts of it felt too preachy for me, and other parts a bit inaccessible. But so many poems from it really struck my heart. Here are just a few favorites out of the 80+ poems in this collection.
The United States Is Not the World
and this I was reminded of by
mamas in silk saris
grandpas in burgundy turbans,
smoky overcoats
Sikh boys with powder-puff topknots
braided girls munching Belgian chocolate
and a gloomy little lad with a strange golden cone on his head
Thank you, I said. O thank you Gate
D-4, Amsterdam to Delhi
months of smug Americana dissolving
quickly
as tiny white no-jetlag pills
on the tongue
–by Naomi Shihab Nye, all rights reserved
Don’t Say
God said.
You made it up
then put it in God’s pocket.
God may have thrown it out already.
–by Naomi Shihab Nye, all rights reserved
To One Now Grown
If we could start over, I would let you get dirtier.
Place your face in the food, it’s okay.
In trade for great metaphors,
the ones you used to spout every minute,
I’d extend your bedtime,
be more patient with tantrums,
never answer urgency with urgency,
try to stay serene.
In one scene you are screaming
and I stop the car.
What do I do next?
I can’t remember.
I have buried it in the drawer of small socks.
Give me the box of time.
Let’s make it bigger.
It’s all yours.
–by Naomi Shihab Nye, all rights reserved
The Poetry Friday roundup is at The Simple and the Ordinary!