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Overview
“A beautifully constructed, thoughtful, and inspiring collection.”—School Library Journal (starred review)
Young People’s Poet Laureate and National Book Award Finalist Naomi Shihab Nye’s uncommon and unforgettable voice offers readers peace, humor, inspiration, and solace. This volume of almost one hundred original poems is a stunning and engaging tribute to the diverse voices past and present that comfort us, compel us, lead us, and give us hope.
“I think the air is full of voices. If we slow down and practice listening, we hear those voices better. They live on in us. Inspiration? We need it every day. We deserve it. It is essential, like food, water, clean air, shelter. Here are some poems celebrating the voices that have changed my life and continue to do so.”—Naomi Shihab Nye, Award-winning poet and author
Voices in the Air is a collection of almost one hundred original poems written by the award-winning poet Naomi Shihab Nye in honor of the artists, writers, poets, historical figures, ordinary people, and diverse luminaries from past and present who inspire her and us. Full of words of encouragement, solace, and hope, this collection offers a message of peace and empathy.
Voices in the Air focuses on the inspirational people who strengthen and motivate us to create, to open our hearts, and to live rewarding and graceful lives. With short informational bios about the influential figures behind each poem, and a transcendent introduction by the poet, this is a collection to cherish, read again and again, and share with others.
Featuring black-and-white spot art throughout, as well as brief bios of the “voices,” an index, and an introduction by the author.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780062691859 |
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Publisher: | HarperCollins |
Publication date: | 03/15/2022 |
Pages: | 208 |
Sales rank: | 376,638 |
Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d) |
Age Range: | 13 - 17 Years |
About the Author
Naomi Shihab Nye is the author and/or editor of more than thirty books. Her books of poetry for adults and young people include 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East (a finalist for the National Book Award); A Maze Me: Poems for Girls; Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners; Honeybee (winner of the Arab American Book Award); Cast Away: Poems of Our Time (one of the Washington Post’s best books of 2020); Come with Me: Poems for a Journey; and Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems. Her other volumes of poetry include Red Suitcase; Words Under the Words; Fuel; Transfer; You & Yours; Mint Snowball; and The Tiny Journalist. Her collections of essays include Never in a Hurry and I’ll Ask You Three Times, Are You Okay?: Tales of Driving and Being Driven.
Naomi Shihab Nye has edited nine acclaimed poetry anthologies, including This Same Sky: Poems from Around the World; The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems from the Middle East; Time You Let Me In: 25 Poets Under 25; and What Have You Lost? Her picture books include Sitti’s Secrets, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter, and her acclaimed fiction includes Habibi; The Turtle of Oman (winner of the Middle East Book Award) and its sequel, The Turtle of Michigan (honorable mention for the Arab American Book Award).
Naomi Shihab Nye has been a Lannan Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Witter Bynner Fellow (Library of Congress). She has received a Lavan Award from the Academy of American Poets, the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, the Paterson Poetry Prize, four Pushcart Prizes, the Robert Creeley Award, and "The Betty," from Poets House, for service to poetry, and numerous honors for her children’s literature, including two Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards. In 2011 Nye won the Golden Rose Award given by the New England Poetry Club, the oldest poetry-reading series in the country. Her work has been presented on National Public Radio on A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer’s Almanac. She has been featured on two PBS poetry specials, including The Language of Life with Bill Moyers, and she also appeared on NOW with Bill Moyers. She has been affiliated with the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin for twenty years and served as poetry editor at the Texas Observer for twenty years. In 2019–20 she was the poetry editor for the New York Times Magazine. She is Chancellor Emeritus for the Academy of American Poets and laureate of the 2013 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, and in 2017 the American Library Association presented Naomi Shihab Nye with the 2018 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award. In 2018 the Texas Institute of Letters named her the winner of the Lon Tinkle Award for Lifetime Achievement. She was named the 2019–21 Young People's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. In 2020 she was awarded the Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement by the National Book Critics Circle. In 2021 she was voted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Naomi Shihab Nye is professor of creative writing-poetry at Texas State University.
Table of Contents
Introduction xi
Section 1 Messages
To Manage 1
Aurora Borealis 2
Propriety 4
Big Bend National Park Says No to All Walls 5
Time's Low Note 7
Bully 9
Invocation 11
Bamboo Mind 12
Cross the Sea 13
To Babies 15
Songbook 16
Unsung-on Finding 17
Bundle 18
Little Lady, Little Nugget Brooms 20
Welcome What Comes 22
What Happens Next 24
Everything Changes the World 26
Standing Back 27
Three Hundred Goats 28
Lost People 29
Broken 31
Twilight 32
Section II Voices in the Air
For Aziz 37
Sheep by the Sea, a painting by Rosa Bonheur (1865) 39
Emily 40
Warbler Woods 41
Gratitude Pillow 43
Life Loves 45
Getting Over It 47
Conversation with Grace Paley, Flight of the Mind Writing Workshop, Oregon 50
Showing Up 51
For Caroline M. 53
Tomorrow 56
After Listening to Paul Durcan, Ireland 59
We Will Get Lost in You 61
James Tate in Jerusalem 63
Train Across Texas 65
Longfellow's Bed 67
Walt Whitman's Revisions 68
"Rest and Be Kind, You Don't Have to Prove Anything" 70
Peace Pilgrim's Pocket 74
C. D. Stepped Out 76
True Success 78
Woven by Air, Texture of Air 80
Tell Us All the Gossip You Know 81
Every Day 88
One State 90
My Name Is … 91
Invitation to the NSA 93
Double Peace 94
Break the Worry Cocoon 96
The Tent 98
Please Sit Down 100
For the Birds 102
Bowing Candles 103
Black Car 105
Section III More Worlds
Mountains 109
Oh, Say Can You See 111
Anti-Inaugural 113
I Vote for You 116
Belfast 118
Summer 120
A Lonely Cup of Coffee 121
Reading Obituaries on the Day of the Giant Moon 122
To Jamyla Bolden of Ferguson, Missouri 124
Your Answering Machine, After Your Death 126
Ring 127
Hummingbird 129
Next Time Ask More Questions 131
In Transit 132
Zen Boy 133
Where Do Poets Find Images? 134
Cell Phone Tower Disguised as a Tree 136
Before I Was a Gazan 138
Morning Ablution 139
What Do Palestinians Want? 140
Arabs in Finland 142
Ladders in Repose 143
The Gift 144
Voodoo Spoons 145
Barbershop 147
Getaway Car, United States, 2017 149
"Little Brother Shot Playing with Pistol" 151
Moment of Relief 152
Unbelievable Things 153
Airport Life 160
Texas, Out Driving 162
Missing the Boat, Take Two 163
All We Will Not Know 164
Loving Working 165
Stars Over Big Bend 166
United 167
Reserved for Poets 169
Her Father Still Watching 170
Small Basket of Happiness 171
Biographical Notes 173
Index of First Lines 187
Acknowledgments