I first discovered the poems of Naomi Shihab back in 1975, in a pubication called Power: Personal Reflections by Youth for Youth. My friends and I enjoyed subscribing to this little St. Louis - based poetry magazine and ordering gift subscriptions for each other every Christmas. Although Naomi didn't know it, I was her groupie in those days and copied all of her work into a notebook that I kept in highschool and college. Here are a couple more of my favorites:
My Cat
My cat is sitting on the floor
in the middle of the kitchen
during rush hour.
He is sitting directly between
the refrigerator and the sink.
In mean moments I kick him gently
and tell him to hit the road.
In other moments he acts as a kind
of reminder. I stop.
Why are you sitting there? I ask him.
He smiles.
He is sitting on the floor
in the center of everything
being peaceful.
Because I have forgotten something,
he gets in my way.
Feeding the Cat
Once I woke up early
and contemplated a coffee bean
in all its potent, brown mystery
and that was the day
nothing was empty,
the day a simple act
like feeding the cat
was reason enough
to be alive.
both poems by Naomi Shihab Nye (b 1952)
Contemporary Palestinian / American Poet
Our Tigress Pine at the Window
No comments:
Post a Comment