The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.
―
This month’s prompt was challenging: What did your day look like when you got home from school?
I am most certain that it would bring no benefit to anyone and most especially me to go back and recall what my day looked like when I got home from school.
But…
I visited my library on Friday and picked up a book of Naomi Shihab Nye’s poems: Fuel
And of course she had the answer for me… (because doesn’t poetry always?!)
BECAUSE OF LIBRARIES WE CAN SAY THESE THINGS
by Naomi Shihab Nye
She is holding the book close to her body,
carrying it home on the cracked sidewalk,
down the tangled hill.
If a dog runs at her again, she will use the book as a shield.
She looked hard among the long lines
of books to find this one.
When they start talking about money,
when the day contains such long and hot places,
she will go inside.
An orange bed is waiting.
Story without corners.
She will have two families.
They will eat at different hours.
She is carrying a book past the fire station
and the five-and-dime.
What this town has not given her
the book will provide; a sheep,
a wilderness of new solutions.
The book has already lived through its troubles.
The book has a calm cover, a straight spine.
When the step returns to itself
as the best place for sitting,
the old men up and down the street
are latching their clippers,
she will not be alone.
She will have a book to open
and open and open.
Her life starts here.
Because of Libraries We Can Say These Things by Naomi Shihab Nye © 1998 from Fuel published by BOA Editions, Ltd.
See you all back here on Wednesday!
This is just perfect, Kat! (And thanks for reminding me about MoM. I completely forgot about it this month!)
I had an internal debate with myself all week about how to post… obviously, I did not have an answer because I posted something entirely unrelated on Friday. Thanks to Ms. Nye for providing me with this poem so I could have a bit of a mini-exhibit! lol
That book, that poem, on that day… Well. No mistake there. And I’m sure I’m not the only reader who will have tingles and a tight throat.
Damn, the efficiency of a poet’s handle on language. The visceral response is similar to when music levels me. Know what I mean?
Yes! And she is brilliant at it!
A perfect poem to fit the prompt.
This is wonderful and such a great response to the prompt! I would guess that many of us had some deep feelings about the power of the books we brought home from the library.
Books and libraries are so important. This is a wonderful response to the prompt. Namoi Shihab Nye is always a good idea. Once she was a poet in residence at UNL for a month. At the time my sister worked in an indie bookstore that hosted her for a signing. My sister invited me to have lunch with them – four or five of us with her. It was a most wonderful experience and she was humble, kind, and generous with her time.
Brilliant poem. Hurrah for libraries.
I love this poem for so many reasons, not the least of which is the solace that libraries offer for lonely, scared children who need to escape from a difficult home life. Thank you for sharing this.
the answer is perfect and libraries have been my soul filling joy since I can remember. My parents never took me but I discovered the joy of the library when I was a teen at school and now I cannot imagine life without a library.