Poetry mines the depths of our hearts and souls to put words to our thoughts and feelings. It is a vehicle for understanding ourselves as well as our world. It can soothe us or shake us awake in only a few lines. Poetry is a close focus on something cared about. Whether you are writing or reading a poem, the poem brings you into an intimate place of connection, and feeling.
I think some of my all-time favorite poets are from my childhood: Stevenson, Milne, Carroll, Rossetti, and Lear, to name a few. I so loved their poems, and the time spent with my young sons reading those poems together. Later in life, poems fell by the wayside as I did a myriad of adult things. Then Mary Oliver caught my attention. Oh, how I loved her! She spoke directly to me. Then Rosemary Wahtola Tromer entered my life, literally. She did a program at the local library and has returned to do many more. Her poems are just so real, sweet, sometimes raw, and always honest. She seems to have the special ability to touch the very core of humanity in all of us. If you don’t know her, she is a poet from Colorado and was Poet Laureate of San Miguel County from 2006 to 2010 and Poet Laureate of Colorado’s Western Slope by the Telluride Institute from 2015 to 2017. She currently lives in Placerville. Even if you don’t think you like poetry, maybe check her out? She could change your mind!
Naomi Shihab Nye is another poet whom I find remarkable. My introduction to her was when I read Gate A-4. I felt it to the soles of my feet and I could not hold back my tears. It is such a kind, tender, beautiful piece. I’ve left a link to a YouTube video below. I am reading her new book, Sidekick, and highly recommend it.
Naomi Shihab Nye is a Palestinian American poet, editor, songwriter, and novelist who was born on March 12, 1952, in St. Louis, Missouri. Her father, Aziz Shihab, was a journalist, editor, and author. He grew up in Palestine, and the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 forced him and his family to become refugees. Her mother, Miriam Allwarde Shihab, was an American artist who worked as a teacher at a Montessori school.
Naomi began writing poetry at six. When she was fourteen, the family moved to the West Bank, which was then part of Jordan. Naomi spent her early high school days in Ramallah in Palestine and the Old City in Jerusalem.
They were there less than a year when the Six -Day War broke out on June 5, 1967. Operation Focus was a brutal surprise attack by Israeli troops comprising a series of airstrikes against Egyptian airfields and other facilities. For the second time in his life, her father escaped the brutality, this time taking his family with him. They moved to San Antonio, Texas, where Naomi graduated from Robert E. Lee High School and was the editor of the literary magazine. In 1974, she earned a BA in English and World Religions from Trinity University. After graduation, she worked with the Texas Commission on the Arts as “writer-in-schools” and taught writing workshops mostly to children. She characterized herself as a “wandering poet” and says that her childhood memories and her travels inspired much of her poetry. But she also says San Antonio, her current home, is an inspiration for much of her writing. “San Antonio feels most like home, as I have lived here the longest. But everywhere can be home the moment you unpack, make a tiny space that feels agreeable.”
Naomi has received many awards and fellowships and is a prolific author. She has published over thirty-five books while contributing to hundreds of others. She currently teaches creative writing at Texas State University. About her work, the poet William Stafford has said, “Her poems combine transcendent liveliness and sparkle along with warmth and human insight. She is a champion of the literature of encouragement and heart. Reading her work enhances life.”
It has certainly enhanced my life.
