I Still Have Everything You Gave Me It is dusty on the edges. It is slightly rotten. I guard it without thinking. I focus on it once a year when I shake it out in the wind. I do not ache. I would not trade. Naomi Shihab Nye More Quotes by Naomi Shihab Nye More Quotes From Naomi Shihab Nye Being alive is a common road. It's what we notice makes us different. Naomi Shihab Nye alive different common Energy is everything. Rubbing happy and sad together creates energy. Naomi Shihab Nye energy together only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say it is I you have been looking for, and then goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend. Naomi Shihab Nye shadow kindness world If someday, in a morning, you see you, in a mirror or the dent of a spoon, and wonder Where is my soul and Where has it gone, remember this: Catch the gaze of a woman on the metro, subway, tram. Look at a man. Seek and you will find you in the silvered space, a flash between souls. Naomi Shihab Nye mirrors morning men I have always loved the gaps, the spaces between things, as much as the things. I love staring, pondering, mulling, puttering. I love the times when someone or something is late-there's that rich possibility of noticing more, in the meantimePoetry calls us to pause. There is so much we overlook, while the abundance around us continues to shimmer, on its own. Naomi Shihab Nye gaps things-i-love space Since there is no place large enough Naomi Shihab Nye moon night hands maybe we try too hard to be remembered, waking to the glowing yellow disc in ignorance, swearing that today will be the day, today we will make something of our lives. what if we are so busy searching for worth that we miss the sapphire sky and cackling blackbird. what else is missing? maybe our steps are too straight and our paths too narrow and not overlapping. maybe when they overlap someone in another country lights a candle, a couple resolves their argument, a young man puts down his silver gun and walks away. Naomi Shihab Nye couple ignorance country I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous, or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular, but because it never forgot what it could do. Naomi Shihab Nye soul mind heart 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 al out. This day will never, no matter how long you live, happen again. It is exquisitely singular. It will never again be exactly repeated. Naomi Shihab Nye matter long thinking you will never catch up. Walk around feeling like a leaf know you could tumble at any second. Then decide what to do with your time. --The Art of Disappearing Naomi Shihab Nye disappear feelings art Getting over what you did to me is not why I get out of bed anymore. Naomi Shihab Nye bed Poetry [is] more necessary than ever as a fire to light our tongues. Naomi Shihab Nye tongue light fire Because sometimes I live in a hurricane of words and not one of them can save me. Naomi Shihab Nye hurricanes save-me sometimes The hands are churches that worship the world. Naomi Shihab Nye church hands world I do think that all of us think in poems. Naomi Shihab Nye thinking I'm not interested in Naomi Shihab Nye oppression not-interested people I support all people on earth Naomi Shihab Nye compassion hair people why are we so monumentally slow? Naomi Shihab Nye A boy told me if he roller-skated fast enough his loneliness couldn't catch up to him, the best reason I ever heard for trying to be a champion. What I wonder tonight pedaling hard down King William Street is if it translates to bicycles. A victory! To leave your loneliness panting behind you on some street corner while you float free into a cloud of sudden azaleas, pink petals that have never felt loneliness, no matter how slowly they fell. Naomi Shihab Nye loneliness kings boys Peter Conners stunning prose poems are packed with keen sensitivity, dreaminess, and wit. I love his time travels, the vibrant layering of image and detail. Try taking walks as you are reading this book- the dazzle of landscapes, inner and outer, feel replenished and rich. This is language and vision I want to come home to again and again. Naomi Shihab Nye reading home book