Lit Contemporary Poet Project by Bradley Udwin

Lit Contemporary Poet Project by Bradley Udwin https://padlet.com/988061/2nmulw47cj5h Naomi Shihab Nye en-us 2019-05-10 12:01:56 UTC 2019-05-21 23:05:37 UTC hello@padlet.com https://imgglb.padletcdn.com/v13/image?t=g_auto&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpadlet.net%2Ficons%2Fpng%2F1f410.png Multimedia Introductory Materials (Favorite Poems) 988061 https://padlet.com/988061/2nmulw47cj5h/wish/361571503

]]> 2019-05-20 01:03:19 UTC https://padlet.com/988061/2nmulw47cj5h/wish/361571503 Multimedia Introductory Materials (Interesting Articles) 988061 https://padlet.com/988061/2nmulw47cj5h/wish/361572253

https://forward.com/culture/books/416303/most-popular-poem-of-2018-naomi-shihab-nye-kindness/

https://www.latimes.com/books/la-et-jc-naomi-shihab-nye-poet-laureate-20190514-story.html

]]> 2019-05-20 01:09:45 UTC https://padlet.com/988061/2nmulw47cj5h/wish/361572253 Multimedia Introductory Materials (Video Link) 988061 https://padlet.com/988061/2nmulw47cj5h/wish/361573589

https://youtu.be/-_RAFdZHGoo

]]> 2019-05-20 01:20:36 UTC https://padlet.com/988061/2nmulw47cj5h/wish/361573589 Recitation of Poem: "Hello" 988061 https://padlet.com/988061/2nmulw47cj5h/wish/361578411

https://www.screenmailer.com/v/GV9Y3SAPGeazrEs

]]> 2019-05-20 01:50:59 UTC https://padlet.com/988061/2nmulw47cj5h/wish/361578411 Short Biography 988061 https://padlet.com/988061/2nmulw47cj5h/wish/361578626
Naomi Shihab Nye is a poet, songwriter, and novelist who is most widely known for her poetry. She was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, on March 12th, 1952, to a Palestinian father and an American mother. Her parents had a profound influence on her writing, with her father being a journalist and her mother being a teacher. Nye had a very interesting childhood, having grown up in multiple U.S. states and in Jerusalem, Israel. She started writing poetry at a very early age and even had her first poem published in a children’s magazine at age seven. Nye considers herself to be a “wandering poet,” incorporating a wide variety of cultures into her works. Her writing style is considered fairly down to earth and easy to understand for the average person. Because of this, her poetry has connected to millions of people across the globe. Throughout her career she has released a variety of poem collections and novels but she finally gained a fair amount of notoriety after the september 11th terrorist attacks. She became an outspoken advocate for Arab americans, trying to combat prejudice in a period of time when islamophobia was very prevalent. Her short story collection 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East deals with these ideas directly and was critically acclaimed, having been selected as a finalist for the National Book Award. Naomi Shihab Nye has had a long and varied career, producing numerous critically acclaimed poems, novels, and short stories. Currently she lives in San Antonio, Texas where she continues to write.

Work Cited

]]> 2019-05-20 01:52:32 UTC https://padlet.com/988061/2nmulw47cj5h/wish/361578626 Analytical Reflection #1: "Kindness" 988061 https://padlet.com/988061/2nmulw47cj5h/wish/361591123 In Naomi Shihab Nye’s seminal poem “Kindness,” Nye makes the case that in order to fully experience life, one must first suffer and learn to emphasize with their fellow humans, then and only then will they be able to truly be kind. Starting in the first stanza, Nye establishes the high importance of sacrifice. She states that “before you know what kindness really is, you must lose things.” This establishes the overall theme of loss that is conveyed throughout the entire poem. When referring to the things that people covet and save, she states that “all this must go so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness.” Nye is conveying the idea that in order to truly appreciate the idea of kindness, one must experience what it is like to be without it. In the second stanza Nye furthers this idea of experiencing life without kindness by bringing up the idea of empathy. When speaking about a personal story of almost being murdered on a bus, she mentions the person who wasn’t so lucky. She states that when thinking about the person who died, one must think about how “this could be [them].” Along with gaining that perspective, she conveys that one must picture what that person was like, how they “journeyed the night with plans” as well. Throughout the entire second stanza, Nye is conveying the importance of being thankful for what one has and being empathetic towards people who don’t have the same luxuries. The third stanza starts out with the statement that “before [one] knows kindness as the deepest thing inside, [one] must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.” Nye is saying that one must truly immerse oneself in sorrow. They must see how horrible it is and how absolutely drowning it is. Nye follows up this sentiment with how after the sorrow “it is only kindness that makes sense anymore.” After the misery of sorrow, it becomes abundantly clear that kindness is the only clear course of action. Nye is essentially saying that the only way to truly understand the significance of kindness, is to suffer. If one only experiences kindness they won’t realize how special it is. After being without it, they will understand why kindness is important and will strive that much more to embody it. Throughout the poem “Kindness,” Naomi Shihab Nye proves that in order to experience life at its best, one must first experience life at its worst.

]]> 2019-05-20 03:13:59 UTC https://padlet.com/988061/2nmulw47cj5h/wish/361591123 Analytical Reflection #2: "300 Goats" 988061 https://padlet.com/988061/2nmulw47cj5h/wish/361591586 In Naomi Shihab Nye’s seminal poem “300 Goats,” Nye uses the goats as a metaphor for society coming together. Nye starts out the poem by setting the scene, describing how adverse the conditions are. She describes the setting as “icy fields.” This is emblematic of the real world. While the goats are existing in a hard frigid wasteland, humans are also just trying to get by in the hustle and bustle of work and social relationships. Nye follows up the “icy fields” statements with a couple worrisome questions. The speaker is clearly concerned about the goats’ wellbeing as she asks, “is water flowing in the tank?” And “will they huddle together, warm bodies pressing.” This is also emblematic of society, as society is characterized by stress with people fretting about virtually everything. The poem ultimately concludes with the speaker asking her friend who is the keeper of the goats, “aren’t you worried about them?” The friend replies with “not really, they know what to do. They’re goats.” Here, Nye is expressing that in order to be truly happy one must learn to be carefree like the speaker’s friend. So much of life gets characterized by unnecessary stress. The society of goats is not unlike human society. When the social ecosystem will continue to work, just like the goats will continue to survive the winter. The goats have each other just like every human has their own support system. Life isn’t about to fall apart and this is conveyed by Naomi Shihab Nye’s brilliant metaphor of goats.

]]> 2019-05-20 03:18:41 UTC https://padlet.com/988061/2nmulw47cj5h/wish/361591586