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Naomi Shihab Nye

Naomi Shihab Nye
Photo by Michael Nye

Naomi Shihab Nye

Born: 12 March 1952

Naomi Shihab Nye was born on March 12, 1952, in St. Louis to a Palestinian father and an American mother. Nye is the author of numerous poetry collections, including Grace Notes: Poems about Family (Greenwillow Bookss, 2024); Cast Away: Poems for Our Time (Greenwillow Books, 2020); The Tiny Journalist (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2019); Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners (Greenwillow Books, 2018); Transfer (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2011); You and Yours (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2005) and 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East (Greenwillow Books, 2002), a collection of new and selected poems. (Source)

Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye

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Shoulders by Naomi Shihab Nye

October 24, 2025
ShouldersNaomi Shihab Nye A man crosses the street in rain, stepping gently, looking two times north and south, because his son is asleep on his shoulder. No car must splash him. No car drive too near to his shadow. This […]
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Torn Map by Naomi Shihab Nye

September 4, 2025
“Wouldn’t it be nice / if that were true? / I’d tear a map / and be right next to you.” — Naomi Shihab Nye
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The Attic and Its Nails by Naomi Shihab Nye

September 14, 2022
"It’s hard up there. You dig in a box for whatever the moment requires: sweater, wreath, the other half of the walky-talky, and find twelve things you forgot about..." — Naomi Shihab Nye
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The Art of Disappearing by Naomi Shihab Nye

April 23, 2016
“You’re trying to remember something / too important to forget.” — Naomi Shihab Nye
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Negotiations with a Volcano by Naomi Shihab Nye

November 25, 2014
“It is not easy to be this small and live in your shadow.” — Naomi Shihab Nye
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Burning the Old Year by Naomi Shihab Nye

January 7, 2013
“So much of any year is flammable, / lists of vegetables, partial poems. / Orange swirling flame of days, / so little is a stone.” — Naomi Shihab Nye
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Trying to Name What Doesn’t Change by Naomi Shihab Nye

October 21, 2011
“a track without a train / is a changed track.” — Naomi Shihab Nye
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The Traveling Onion by Naomi Shihab Nye

March 18, 2011
“For the sake of others, / disappear.” — Naomi Shihab Nye
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Making a Fist by Naomi Shihab Nye

February 9, 2011
“The borders we must cross separately, / stamped with our unanswerable woes.” — Naomi Shihab Nye
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The Rider by Naomi Shihab Nye

January 29, 2011
“A victory! To leave your loneliness / panting behind you on some street corner” — Naomi Shihab Nye
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Yellow Glove by Naomi Shihab Nye

March 5, 2010
“I knew my mother’s eyes had tears they had not cried yet, I didn’t want to be the one to make them flow.” — Naomi Shihab Nye
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Hidden by Naomi Shihab Nye

November 24, 2006
“No one sees / the fuel that feeds you.” — Naomi Shihab Nye
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So Much Happiness by Naomi Shihab Nye

December 31, 2005
“You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit, / for the moon, but continues to hold it, and share it, / and in that way, be known.” — Naomi Shihab Nye
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Famous by Naomi Shihab Nye

November 7, 2005
“I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous, / or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular, / but because it never forgot what it could do.” — Naomi Shihab Nye
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Two Countries by Naomi Shihab Nye

October 9, 2005
“Love means you breathe in two countries.” — Naomi Shihab Nye