Poetry Unit

We are beginning a unit of reading poetry with the poet Naomi Shihab Nye. Look her up to get some information about her.

Here is some biographical information about her from the Academy of American Poets:

 "Naomi Shihab Nye was born on March 12, 1952, in St. Louis, Missouri, to a Palestinian father and an American mother. During her high school years, she lived in Ramallah in Palestine, the Old City in Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas"

 (www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/naomi-shihab-nye)

 She writes a lot about family, nature, and humanity. Like most poets, she tries to create a new way of seeing the world, and she explores complex meanings while painting a simple picture with words.

Here is a video of Nye reading a poem written from a child's perspective of the world. You can see how she sees children as having an innocent yet unique (even knowledgeable): https://youtu.be/biJ3FP8aDjY

 Here is a link to an interview with the poet that aired on PBS:

 http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_nye.html

 Finally, here is a famous letter that she wrote after 9/11. I think the letter will help you understand some of why she writes and what she is trying to accomplish in her poetry:

 http://www.arches.uga.edu/~godlas/shihabnye.html