I grew up in St. Louis in a tiny house full of large music - Mahalia Jackson and Marian Anderson singing majestically on the stereo, my German-American mother fingering 'The Lost Chord' on the piano as golden light sank through trees, my Palestinian father trilling in Arabic in the shower each dawn.
Naomi Shihab NyeI think the job of writing and literature is to encourage each one of us to believe that we're living in a story.
Naomi Shihab NyeI'm writing mostly to thank you for living you eighty years and to tell you I love you and think of you often.
Naomi Shihab NyeThe writing of Kathleen McGookey shines more brightly than most fine things we feel pleasure to read. Celebrate it!
Naomi Shihab NyeBefore you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
Naomi Shihab NyeFor you who came so far; for you who held out, wearing a black scarf to signify grief; for you who believe true love can find you amidst this atlas of tears linking one town to its own memory of mortar, when it was still a dream to be built and people moved there, believing, and someone with sky and birds in his heart said this would be a good place for a park.
Naomi Shihab Nye