January 28, 2014
I made this post over a year ago on another website that I rarely use these days. My writing practice prompt for today came from the first line in Joy Harbo's poem - Remember. Her writing always reminds me of Naomi Shihab Nye because they both focus on universal learning and how where we are at any given time has influence on our lives. Also, the people we meet along the way become part of us as individuals…shaping us, molding us, teaching us. Below is the original post. The blue title links to the original posting on my other site. I am not changing anything…just remember you are reading from 2012, but it still holds so true in 2014.
Source: We Heart It
THIS SAME SKY
On this eve of New Year’s Eve, I am a bit pensive … thinking about all the opportunities my life has brought over the past 30 plus years that I have been in the business of educating the best and brightest who are our future. I have had the honor to meet and work with some of the greats in the field of education. I have also had the opportunity to meet and be able to call friend many of the wonderful writers who have left their mark on our world.
For the past two days, Naomi Shihab Nye has been on my mind. Her collection of poetry from all over the world ‘This same Sky’ haunted me. I searched for my copy, but due to the multiple moves over the course of my life could not find the book … oh, it is there somewhere … in storage as are so many things I cannot reach out and put my hand on when they come to mind.
For a part of my career I was a NJWPT Writing Trainer and we had wonderful weekend Writing Retreats annually. The most favored and remembered were held deep in the Texas Hill country along the banks of the Guadalupe River. A magical place that always restored my soul and left me never wanting to re-enter the ‘real’ world.
One of these retreats in the late 1990s was when I had the honor and privilege of meeting Naomi. She was the retreat author in residence which gave us all the chance to visit with her on a one to one basis. Naomi is this tiny person with a big heart, gentle soul and loose braid draped over her left shoulder … dynamic in her beliefs and actions. Born in Missouri, lived a year during her teen years in Palestine with her parents getting to know her paternal grandmother, and finally settling as an adult in San Antonio, Texas.
This particular weekend, she shared many poems with the group from ‘This Same Sky’ and read Sitti’s Secret to our Saturday night group assembly. Sitti’s Secret is a children’s book which had been newly released at that time about a small child visiting her grandmother in Palestine. At first they communicated with her father as link between English and Arabic. Soon grandmother and granddaughter developed their own ‘secret’ language to bridge the gap between their worlds. It is a powerful book on many levels. One that has meaning for a Kindergarten child as well as the most hard core adult. I challenge you to read this book and come away dry eyed.
Two of the poems from ‘This Same Sky’ come back to me over and over again.
The first is titled HEALING.
HEALING
The nights passed very darkly.
Great cries ran in the wind.
The next day we didn’t remember a thing.
There was a deep hole left in time.
There where the wolf had nestled in,
a pothole remained, spread with warm wolf-hair.
Now a sheep could lie down there.
Yannis Ritsos Greece
Translated by Edmund Keeley
The second poem is TRANSFORMATIONS.
TRANSFORMATIONS
My little son enters the room
and says “you are a vulture I am a mouse”
I put away my book
wings and claws grow out of me
their ominous shadows race on the walls
I am a vulture he is a mouse “you are a wolf I am a goat”
I walk around the table and am a wolf
windowpanes gleam like fangs in the dark
while he runs to his mother
safe his head hidden in the warmth of her dress
Tadeusz Różewicz Poland
Translated by Czeslaw Milosz
Both of the poems represent to me what our WORLD as a whole needs right now … to be healed and transformed. Remove hate and intolerance … become one and begin again, hand in hand with peace and understanding.
I am including a couple of links for you to get to know Naomi a little better.
The following is a 1999 interview:
http://www.pifmagazine.com/1999/08/interview-withnaomi-shihab-nye/
This link does not have a date, however, it is a powerful letter written by Naomi.
http://godlas.myweb.uga.edu/shihabnye.html
Any of Naomi's works may be found at Amazon.com.
Copyright © 2012 Annie
Always…I wish you peace, joy and happiness, but most of all I wish you Love.
As Ever, Annie
For the past two days, Naomi Shihab Nye has been on my mind. Her collection of poetry from all over the world ‘This same Sky’ haunted me. I searched for my copy, but due to the multiple moves over the course of my life could not find the book … oh, it is there somewhere … in storage as are so many things I cannot reach out and put my hand on when they come to mind.
For a part of my career I was a NJWPT Writing Trainer and we had wonderful weekend Writing Retreats annually. The most favored and remembered were held deep in the Texas Hill country along the banks of the Guadalupe River. A magical place that always restored my soul and left me never wanting to re-enter the ‘real’ world.
One of these retreats in the late 1990s was when I had the honor and privilege of meeting Naomi. She was the retreat author in residence which gave us all the chance to visit with her on a one to one basis. Naomi is this tiny person with a big heart, gentle soul and loose braid draped over her left shoulder … dynamic in her beliefs and actions. Born in Missouri, lived a year during her teen years in Palestine with her parents getting to know her paternal grandmother, and finally settling as an adult in San Antonio, Texas.
This particular weekend, she shared many poems with the group from ‘This Same Sky’ and read Sitti’s Secret to our Saturday night group assembly. Sitti’s Secret is a children’s book which had been newly released at that time about a small child visiting her grandmother in Palestine. At first they communicated with her father as link between English and Arabic. Soon grandmother and granddaughter developed their own ‘secret’ language to bridge the gap between their worlds. It is a powerful book on many levels. One that has meaning for a Kindergarten child as well as the most hard core adult. I challenge you to read this book and come away dry eyed.
Two of the poems from ‘This Same Sky’ come back to me over and over again.
The first is titled HEALING.
HEALING
The nights passed very darkly.
Great cries ran in the wind.
The next day we didn’t remember a thing.
There was a deep hole left in time.
There where the wolf had nestled in,
a pothole remained, spread with warm wolf-hair.
Now a sheep could lie down there.
Yannis Ritsos Greece
Translated by Edmund Keeley
The second poem is TRANSFORMATIONS.
TRANSFORMATIONS
My little son enters the room
and says “you are a vulture I am a mouse”
I put away my book
wings and claws grow out of me
their ominous shadows race on the walls
I am a vulture he is a mouse “you are a wolf I am a goat”
I walk around the table and am a wolf
windowpanes gleam like fangs in the dark
while he runs to his mother
safe his head hidden in the warmth of her dress
Tadeusz Różewicz Poland
Translated by Czeslaw Milosz
Both of the poems represent to me what our WORLD as a whole needs right now … to be healed and transformed. Remove hate and intolerance … become one and begin again, hand in hand with peace and understanding.
I am including a couple of links for you to get to know Naomi a little better.
The following is a 1999 interview:
http://www.pifmagazine.com/1999/08/interview-withnaomi-shihab-nye/
This link does not have a date, however, it is a powerful letter written by Naomi.
http://godlas.myweb.uga.edu/shihabnye.html
Any of Naomi's works may be found at Amazon.com.
Copyright © 2012 Annie
Always…I wish you peace, joy and happiness, but most of all I wish you Love.
As Ever, Annie
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