{"id":3385,"date":"2020-03-04T00:00:21","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T05:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/?p=3385"},"modified":"2020-03-04T14:01:54","modified_gmt":"2020-03-04T19:01:54","slug":"naomi-shihab-nye-missing-the-boat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2020\/03\/04\/naomi-shihab-nye-missing-the-boat\/","title":{"rendered":"Naomi Shihab Nye – “Missing the Boat”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, \u00a0March 4
\nThe boat bobbed into the distance,
\nshrinking like a toy\u2014
\nat which point you probably realized
\nyou had always loved the sea.<\/p>\n

You could imagine that today\u2019s poet, Naomi Shihab-Nye, had read last month’s post where I tipped my hat and even bowed my head to remember my soul friend Connie di Biase. \u00a0 About our long shared love, I wrote \u201cOver 4 decades of kinship,\u00a0Connie de Biase and I partnered in a mutual commitment to noticing.\u201d \u00a0Noticing creates a habit of expecting that you live in a world alive\u00a0with\u00a0graceful surprises. \u00a0 They open you\u00a0to unexpected wonder and unlock hope when grief or fear or just mean crankiness seem to assume the power to lock down your imagination in a prison of dead-ends.<\/p>\n

Like today\u2019s poet, Connie loved to tease, or even scold . . .\u00a0\u201cYou are stuck just now, aren\u2019t you? \u00a0Missing your own beauty, treating your own self with meanness that you would never inflict on the people of\u00a0your life. \u00a0GET A LIFE! \u00a0You are beautiful and beloved just as you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connie was never so alive with beauty as when she showed you that she noticed your own unique beauty, and\u00a0she never scolded except when you were missing the boat and getting lost in gloom. When she noticed that, she rose to heights of insight and teasing that could fill your imagination for a lifetime.<\/p>\n

No wonder so many people miss her voice. \u00a0No wonder, too,\u00a0\u201cMissing the Boat\u201d catches my attention, \u00a0makes me laugh and then apologize for the grace I\u2019d been missing.<\/p>\n

Have a blest Wednesday.<\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cMissing the Boat\u201d<\/p>\n

by Naomi Shihab-Nye<\/p>\n

It is not so much that the boat passed
\nand you failed to notice it.
\nIt is more like the boat stopping
\ndirectly outside your bedroom window,
\nthe captain blowing the signal-horn,
\nthe band playing a rousing march.<\/p>\n

The boat shouted, waving bright flags,
\nits silver hull blinding in the sunlight.<\/p>\n

But you had this idea you were going by train.<\/p>\n

You kept checking the time-table,
\ndigging for tracks.<\/p>\n

And the boat got tired of you,
\nso tired it pulled up the anchor
\nand raised the ramp.<\/p>\n

The boat bobbed into the distance,
\nshrinking like a toy\u2014
\nat which point you probably realized
\nyou had always loved the sea.<\/p>\n

Naomi Shihab Nye\u00a0Different Ways to Pray- Breitenbush Publications, 1980<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nNaomi Shihab Nye
\n(b. March 12, 1952)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nConnie di Biase
\n(d. February 10, 2017)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, \u00a0March 4 The boat bobbed into the distance, shrinking like a toy\u2014 at which point you probably realized you had always loved the sea. You could imagine that today\u2019s poet, Naomi Shihab-Nye, had read last month’s post where I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3385"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3386,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3385\/revisions\/3386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}