Oftentimes, I look to poets and poetry to help me look at the world more closely and listen to it more carefully.
Naomi Shihab Nye has been helping me see and hear.
As the daughter of a Palestinian father and an American mother, she is a writer who writes fiercely and tenderly about our common humanity and the way we can build bridges to bring us closer to one another instead of walls to keep us apart.
I've needed her fierceness and tenderness.
Listen to the first part of her poem Red Brocade from her 2002 work 19 Varieties of Gazelle -
Arabs used to say,
When a stranger appears at your door,
feed him for three days
before asking who he is,
where he’s come from,
where he’s headed.
That way, he’ll have strength
enough to answer.
Or, by then you’ll be
such good friends
you don’t care.
One of my favorite sayings is, “Be a poem.”
I want to be this poem.
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