Posts Tagged: "Naomi Shihab Nye"

bees

You Swirling Tornado of a Human Being

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

note: picture above is from the field at the end of my favorite walking/running trail near my home – the trail ends in a wide-open field – the stacks of wooden boxes are bee hives, and they are from Yakima, WA – some 137 miles away from Maple Valley.

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The following is a poem entitled “We Are The People” by Naomi Shihab Nye…

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We are the people

always going somewhere else. What is this peculiar attribute of our households, our days, our nation? We will not be here long enough to get tired of it. Does this make us less responsible? It’s that relationship you have with a towel when the towel belongs to a hotel.

If we can’t go anywhere else, are we more encouraged to enhance and protect the place where we are?

Hmmmmmm. Bzzzzzzzz.

We should do all we can to stay out of jail, but now and then it is quite uplifting to… Read More

airport

This is the World I Want to Live in.

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

My friend Jackie Frazier shared this beautiful story with me, so now of course I want to share it with you. It’s entitled “Gate A-4″ by Naomi Shihab Nye – the poet, songwriter, and novelist – born to a Palestinian father and an American mother… she calls herself “a wandering poet.”

Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal, after learning my flight had been delayed four hours, I heard an announcement:

“If anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately.”

Well— one pauses these days. Gate A-4 was my own gate. I went there.

An older woman in full traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing.

“Help,” said the flight agent. “Talk to her . What is her problem? We told her… Read More