2 Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye

Naomi Shihab Nye received the Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Books Critics Circle, 2020. She is Young People's Poet Laureate of the United States (Poetry Foundation) and on faculty at Texas State University. Her most recent books are, Everything Comes Next, Collected & New Poems, Cast Away, The Tiny Journalist, and Voices in the Air, Poems for Listeners.  Recently she was a guest interviewer for The Quarantine Tapes. ​

Weniger, aber besser (Less, but better)


It’s fun to blame ourselves for things.
It’s a relief.
The puff of big dreams
shrivels back to normal size.
You think, Probably not.
Probably I won’t get that done
and it won’t matter.
I’m not up for that today.
It’s great to wrap our arms around No
and stay put. I’m fine with failure.
Only you
know what
you didn’t do.


​

Palestine


My grandmother knew
the real treasure of the world
was a pink line on the horizon.
Owned by none,
commanded by none.
Every evening she climbed
a rickety wooden ladder
barefooted
to the flat roof
of her very simple home
to gaze out over stolen hillsides
and valleys
and smile.
The valleys were small
next to the sky.