Poetry is language, rhythm and song. In the voice of Naomi Shihab Nye, prolific Texas poet and National Book Award finalist (19 Varieties of Gazelle), poetry is also a way to connect generations and cross borders. Her newest collection, Transfer, generously pays homage to her Palestinian heritage; her much-loved father; her late, long-lived grandmother; the streets of San Antonio; and the little things in life that can lift us up or let us down.
For Nye, language is like the transfer tickets her father saved from his many travels. She finds them after his death, stashed in a drawer--not only international luggage tags but also the simple city bus chits needed "Because this bus/ only goes so far, then we need another one./ ...We need a/ different direction bus." Language is where she goes when there is nowhere else to go: "Adjectives polished and combed./ How beautiful they were,/ in their same suits, a crowd of men you knew/ would help you if you were falling...."
Transfer exemplifies Nye's broad stylistic reach and explores her frustrations with the politics of terrorism and war--but only in the language of the personal. Her poetry accepts our weaknesses. "So, the years go by, we find our doors and windows./ Some are always open, some never were./ Because we are stubborn, we love/ the ones that won't open most." These new poems gently pry open a few more windows in the world. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.