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| Duration: | 02:12 |
| Uploaded: | 2020-10-02 |
| Last sync: | 2024-04-11 23:00 |
Naomi Shihab Nye reads her poem, "Separation Wall".
Naomi Shihab Nye:
https://twitter.com/ypplaureate
Thanks for watching Ours Poetica, which is produced by Complexly. If you want to keep imagining the world complexly with us, check out Bizarre Beasts. Once a month, hosts Hank Green and Sarah Suta introduce you to a new bizarre beast and explore what makes these animals so weird to us. From birds whose babies have claws on their wings, to lizards with glowing bones, the show examines the how and why of some of the world's most amazingly strange critters. And if you want to take a bizarre beast home, check out the Bizarre Beasts pin club!
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Brought to you by Complexly, The Poetry Foundation, and poet Paige Lewis. Learn more: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/
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Naomi Shihab Nye:
https://twitter.com/ypplaureate
Thanks for watching Ours Poetica, which is produced by Complexly. If you want to keep imagining the world complexly with us, check out Bizarre Beasts. Once a month, hosts Hank Green and Sarah Suta introduce you to a new bizarre beast and explore what makes these animals so weird to us. From birds whose babies have claws on their wings, to lizards with glowing bones, the show examines the how and why of some of the world's most amazingly strange critters. And if you want to take a bizarre beast home, check out the Bizarre Beasts pin club!
Channel: www.youtube.com/bizarrebeasts
Pin Club: www.bizarrebeastsshow.com
Brought to you by Complexly, The Poetry Foundation, and poet Paige Lewis. Learn more: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/
11 issues of Poetry, subscribe today for $20: https://poetrymagazine.org/OursPoetica
Follow us elsewhere for the full Ours Poetica experience:
twitter.com/ourspoeticashow
instagram.com/ourspoeticashow
facebook.com/ourspoeticashow
#poetry #ourspoetica
Introduction
Hello! I'm Naomi Shihab Nye, and I will be reading my poem, "Separation Wall", from The Tiny Journalist.
I'm reading this poem right now because it seems there are many separations and way too many walls between us in the world we're living in. What do we do?
Poem
Separation Wall
When the milk is sour,
it separates.
The next time you stop speaking,
ask yourself why you were born.
They say they are scared of us.
The nuclear bomb is scared of the cucumber.
When my mother asks me to slice cucumbers,
I feel like a normal person with fantastic dilemmas:
Do I make rounds or sticks? Shall I trim the seeds?
I ask my grandmother if there was ever a time
she felt like a normal person every day,
not in danger, and she thinks for as long
as it takes a sun to set and says, Yes.
I always feel like a normal person.
They just don't see me as one.
We would like the babies not to find out about
the failures waiting for them. I would like
them to believe on the other side of the wall
is a circus that just hasn't opened yet. Our friends,
learning how to juggle, to walk on tall poles.