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Naomi Shihab Nye Quotes

born 1952 United States

Naomi Shihab Nye (Arabic: نعومي شهاب ناي; born March 12, 1952) is a Palestinian American poet, editor, songwriter, and novelist.

United States
20th-century poets
Authors
Editors
Novelists

Random Naomi Shihab Nye quote

78 quotes

Hope makes itself every day
springs up from the tiniest places

Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems (2020)

Here at home, the night belonged to the moon. Electricity was rationed, three hours each evening.

the real heroes of race and culture would always be the people who stepped out of their own line to make a larger circle.

Widening the Circle (1995)

It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness.

I keep thinking, we teach children to use language to solve their disputes. We teach them not to hit and fight and bite. Then look what adults do!

This Is Not Who We Are: Arab-Americans in a Post-9/11 World (2002)

"Today you will say things you can predict and other things you could never imagine this minute. Don't reject them, let them come through when they're ready, don't think you can plan it all out..."

What this town has not given her
the book will provide: a sheep,
a wilderness of new solutions

Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems (2020)

Some days were long sentences
flowing into one another.

Habibi (1997)

There was a door in the heart
that had no lock on it.

Habibi (1997)

She opened her mouth
and a siren came out.

Habibi (1997)

On earth, the door still swings wide open.
We live in a new thought.

Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems (2020)

all poems belong to anyone who loves them.

Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners (2018)

When we were born
we were blank pieces of paper;
nothing had been written yet.

Habibi (1997)

Mystery remains part of many poems, as well it should, since it remains part of our lives no matter who or where we are.

Introduction to Salting the Ocean: 100 Poems by Young Poets (2000)

Jerusalem is so permeated with layers and textures, minglings of all kinds that, once you've lived there you don't get over it.

Conversations with the World by Phebe Davidson (1998)

Give up the annoying question, "How long does this have to be?" Just wonder-how long does it need to be? Then try to find out.

Everything Comes Next (2020)

How can there be war
and the next day eating, a man stacking plates
on the curl of his arm, a table of people
toasting one another in languages of grace

Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners (2018)

It is really hard to be lonely very long in a world of words. Even if you don't have friends somewhere, you still have language, and it will find you and wrap its little syllables around you and suddenly there will be a story to live in.

Some people let their countries become their religions and that didn't work either. (p174)

Habibi (1997)

Part of the role of the writer is to encourage other people to discover their voices.

with Al Jadid (1996)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Naomi Shihab Nye (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.