Red Suitcase (American Poets Continuum) - Softcover

Nye, Naomi Shihab

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1880238152 ISBN 13: 9781880238158

Publisher: BOA Editions Ltd., 1994

Synopsis

Poet, teacher, essayist, anthologist, songwriter and singer, Naomi Shihab Nye is one of the country's most acclaimed writers. Her voice is generous; her vision true; her subjects ordinary people, and ordinary situations which, when rendered through her language, become remarkable. In this, her fourth full collection of poetry, we see with new eyes-a grandmother's scarf, an alarm clock, a man carrying his son on his shoulders.

Valentine for Ernest Mann

You can’t order a poem like you order a taco.
Walk up to the counter and say, "I’ll take two"
and expect it to handed back to you
on a shiny plate.

Still, I like you spirit.
Anyone who says, "Here’s my address,
write me a poem," deserves something in reply.
So I’ll tell a secret instead:
poems hide. In the bottoms of our shoes,
they are sleeping. They are the shadows
drifting across our ceilings the moment
before we wake up. What we have to do
is live in a way that lets us find them.

Once I knew a man who gave his wife
two skunks for a valentine.
He couldn’t understand why she was crying.
"I thought they had such beautiful eyes."
And he was serious. He was a serious man
who lived in a serious way. Nothing was ugly
just because the world said so. He really
liked those skunks. So, he re-invented them
as valentines and they became beautiful.
At least, to him. And the poems that had been hiding
in the eyes of skunks for centuries
crawled out and curled up at his feet.

Maybe if we re-invent whatever our lives give us
we find poems. Check your garage, the odd sock
in your drawer, the person you almost like, but not quite.
And let me know.

About this title

About the Author:

Naomi Shihab Nye, poet, essayist, anthologist, has been a recipient of writing fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation and the Witter Bynner Foundation/Library of Congress. Author of more than twenty volumes, her recent books include Mint Snowball and 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East which was selected as a National Book Award finalist in 2002. Her books of poems include Fuel (BOA Editions) and Red Suitcase (BOA). Nye's work has been featured on the PBS poetry specials NOW with Bill Moyers , The Language of Life with Bill Moyers and The United States of Poetry . She has read her work on National Public Radio's Prairie Home Companion. Poetry editor for The Texas Observer, Nye has worked for as a visiting writer in schools at all educational levels. She lives in San Antonio, Texas.

Review:

Almost, Never
Any Number
Arabic
The Attic And Its Nails
Breaking The Fast
Brushing Lives
Continual Usage
The Crossed-out Word
Escape
Even At War
Fireflies
First Hawaiian Bank
For The 500th Dead Palestinian, Ibtisam Bozieh
From Here To There
The Grieving Ring
His Secret
Holy Land
How Palestinians Keep Warm
If God Won't Take Me Why Won't The Devil?
In That Time
In The Public Schools
Inside The Riddle
Jerusalem (1)
Late
Living Where We Do
Living With Mistakes
Love Letter, Hate Letter
Lucia, Your Voice
Lullaby For Regret
The Man Whose Voice Has Been Taken From His Throat
Morning Paper, Society Page
My Grandmother In The Stars
Next Time
Niagara
Problems With The Story
Salt
Saved
Shoulders
The Silence Of Hutchinson, Kansas: A Letter From Texas
Sincerely
Someone Is Standing On The Roof Of The World
Sparrow Bones
Swimmer, Blessed Sea
Texas, The First Time
Those Whom We Do Not Know
Tongue-tied
Travel Alarm
Valentine For Ernest Mann
Violin
Voices
What Brings Us Out
What Happened In Madisonville
What Is Supposed To Happen
What She Was Doing At Home
White Hair Over The Rocky Mountains
Words When We Need Them
Yeast
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

About this edition

• Publisher: BOA Editions Ltd.
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 1880238152
• ISBN 13: 9781880238158
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 90