{"id":3871,"date":"2021-05-12T00:00:07","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T04:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/?p=3871"},"modified":"2021-05-12T09:02:16","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T13:02:16","slug":"may-12-naomi-shihab-nye-famous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2021\/05\/12\/may-12-naomi-shihab-nye-famous\/","title":{"rendered":"May 12  &#8211;  Naomi Shihab Nye   &#8220;Famous&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wednesday May 12<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe River is Famous to the fish\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Soon after Mother\u2019s day with its fountains of affection and admiration,\u00a0I woke early (5:00 am) as Sandhill Cranes and falcons dancing across their several altitude layers \u2013 wind columns playing with the soaring big birds, a refreshing high pressure system making it sweet and easy to breathe, these realities \u2013 memory, dynamic unpredictable dancing, can bring back memories from earlier moments of beauty.\u00a0\u00a0 Readers of the Work Day\/Hard Time poetry list have long been schooled to expect hope and beauty side by side with violent wounds and savage grief.<\/p>\n<p>Today, like every other, invites us to give attention to a strong poet;\u00a0 today\u2019s poet, Naomi Shihab Nye, is familiar, but her poem \u201cFamous\u201d is fresh for most of us.<\/p>\n<p>Best to read the poet out loud, with pauses.\u00a0 Have a blest day.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>john sj<\/p>\n<p><strong>Famous<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The loud voice is famous to silence,<br \/>\nwhich knew it would inherit the earth<br \/>\nbefore anybody said so.<\/p>\n<p>The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds<br \/>\nwatching him from the birdhouse.<\/p>\n<p>The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.<\/p>\n<p>The idea you carry close to your bosom<br \/>\nis famous to your bosom.<\/p>\n<p>The boot is famous to the earth,<br \/>\nmore famous than the dress shoe,<br \/>\nwhich is famous only to floors.<\/p>\n<p>The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it<br \/>\nand not at all famous to the one who is pictured.<\/p>\n<p>I want to be famous to shuffling men<br \/>\nwho smile while crossing streets,<br \/>\nsticky children in grocery lines,<br \/>\nfamous as the one who smiled back.<\/p>\n<p>I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,<br \/>\nor a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,<br \/>\nbut because it never forgot what it could do.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2021\/05\/Naomi-Shihab-Nye.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3872\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2021\/05\/Naomi-Shihab-Nye.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"306\" height=\"204\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2021\/05\/Naomi-Shihab-Nye.jpg 306w, https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2021\/05\/Naomi-Shihab-Nye-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 306px) 100vw, 306px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nNaomi Shihab Nye, b. 1952<\/p>\n<p>Posted by kind permission of the author.\u00a0 From\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00WDE1MY4?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=gratefulnessorg&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00WDE1MY4\">Famous<\/a>, by Naomi Shihab Nye, Wings Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wednesday May 12 \u201cThe River is Famous to the fish\u201d Soon after Mother\u2019s day with its fountains of affection and admiration,\u00a0I woke early (5:00 am) as Sandhill Cranes and falcons dancing across their several altitude layers \u2013 wind columns playing &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2021\/05\/12\/may-12-naomi-shihab-nye-famous\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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\/3871"}],"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=3871"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3875,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3871\/revisions\/3875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}