Song Book by Naomi Shihab Nye

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend September 5, 2014   Song Book   Naomi Shihab Nye

Tiny keyboard bearing the massive reverie of the past— press one button, we’re carried away on a country road, marching with saints, leaving the Red River Valley... here is every holiday you hated, every hard time, each steamy summer wish. You closed your eyes in the wooden stairwell, leaning your head against the wall, knowing a bigger world loomed. It’s still out there, and it’s tucked in this keyboard too, now we are an organ, now we are an oboe, now we are young or ancient, now we are smelling wallpaper in the house our grandfather sold with every cabinet, table and doily included, but we are still adrift, floating, thrum-full of longing layers of sound.            Copyright © 2014 by Naomi Shihab Nye. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “Last week a magical Casio keyboard came to stay in our house one night only. Some young friends manipulated the buttons so it began playing its entire 100 contained songs in automatic succession. Then a poem arrived as well.” —Naomi Shihab Nye   Naomi Shihab Nye is the author of Transfer (BOA Editions, 2011). She is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and teaches at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin. Nye lives in San Antonio, Texas. Most Recent Book by Shihab Nye   Transfer (BOA Editions, 2011) "The Last Slow Days of Summer" by Phillip Lopate "Summer X-Rays" by Nina Cassian "Beagle or Something" by April Bernard Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038