Introduction
Poetry has always been my favorite form of literature because of poets’ ability to express large ideas in short and melodic pieces of writing. Even if a poem is written in white verse, it still has a sense of rhythm and musicality that prose will always lack. Naomi Shihab Nye is one of my favorite poets whose works are filled with sincerity, simplicity, and, at the same time, the depth of ideas hidden between the lines.
Inspiration Piece
Naomi Shihab Nye, “Where Children Live”
Homes where children exude a pleasant rumpledness,
Like a bed made by a child, or a yard littered with balloons.
To be a child again one would need to shed details
Till the heart found itself dressed in the coat with a hood.
Now the heart never goes outside to find something to “do.”
And the house takes on a new face, dignified.
No lost shoes blooming under bushes.
No chipped trucks in the drive.
Grown-ups like swings, leafy plants, slow motion back and forth.
While the yard of a child is strewn with the corpses
Of bottle-rockets and whistles,
anything whizzing and spectacular, brilliantly short-lived.
Trees in children’s yards speak in clearer tongues.
Ants have more hope. Squirrels dance as well as hide.
The fence has a reason to be there, so children can go in and out.
Even when the children are at school, the yards glow
with the leftovers of their affection,
the roots of the tiniest grasses curl toward one another
like secret smiles. (Nye, n.d.).
Background
The poem “Where Children Live” was created in 1982, and it is one of many pieces Naomi Shihab Nye wrote for or about young individuals. The author’s parents come from different cultures, so her childhood was culturally diverse and rather interesting (“Naomi Shihab Nye,” n.d.). As Nye confesses, her main source of writing has always been local life, ordinary people, and their history. Critics describe Nye as being “international in scope and internal in focus” (“Naomi Shihab Nye,” n.d., para. 2). The theme of childhood is one of the most prominent in the poet’s literary career. The audience loves Nye’s readiness to accept various religions, cultures, and traditions.
My Art Piece
My Sweet Second Home
The second home of my childhood
Was the place where my grandparents lived.
We used to visit them every week – at least! – once a week.
The air was different there, so clear and sweet and charming,
And fairy-tales seemed to pervade the whole house and the yard.
My grandparents were simple, hardworking people
Who taught my sister and me to do so much with our hands:
We learned how to look after animals and work in the field,
But most of all, we learned how to be decent people.
Granny would take us to church and show how to pray,
Grandpa would give us rides on his tractor.
Those times were sincere and charming and warm,
Those times that are lost forever since 2011
When they both passed away so rapidly and unexpectedly.
Childhood always disappears so suddenly.
Adulthood creeps in, often without an invitation,
And takes away so many dear things and people.
But memories that we have will keep them alive forever,
The memory that I have warms up my heart
On the darkest days and coldest nights.
Background
My poem is dedicated to my mother’s parents, who played an extremely important role in my life. My formation as an individual, the emergence of mature thoughts and views on life, and the first skills that I have obtained were all born in a little village to which we used to go every Saturday and on holidays. I am an adult now, but I miss and lack my grandparent very much and recollect the times spent with them very often.
Connection
The two pieces are connected by the same topic and the style of writing. Nye’s poem is written in black verse, and so is mine. However, this fact does not prevent both works from conveying deep ideas, even though in simple words. The use of the same medium allows seeing the connection between the poems more vividly. Both pieces contain some wistfulness and melancholy, which indicate that the times about which the authors write were dear to them. The only difference is that my poem focuses on concrete people and a place, whereas Nye’s poem does not refer to a particular place and could be interpreted by many people in their way, letting them think about their own childhood houses and memories.
References
Naomi Shihab Nye. (n.d.). Poetry Foundation.
Nye, N. S. (n.d.). Where children live. Karminia’s Poetry Blog.