Author: Naomi Shihab Nye (also the narrator)
Year published: 2020
Category: Adult fiction (poetry)
Pages: 256 pages
Rating: 4 out of 5
Location: (my 2025 Google Reading map): Palestine, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, USA (TX, NY, MO)
Summary: This celebratory book collects in one volume award-winning and beloved poet Naomi Shihab Nye’s most popular and accessible poems.
Featuring new, never-before-published poems; an introduction by bestselling poet and author Edward Hirsch, as well as a foreword and writing tips by the poet; and stunning artwork by bestselling artist Rafael López, Everything Comes Next is essential for poetry readers, classroom teachers, and library collections.
Review: I do not read poetry often and when I do I feel like I don't know enough and don't really understand it, but I saw this book listed on a local book newsletter and immediately borrowed the audio book from my local library. Poetry by a Palestinian seems appropriate right now.
I thought it would be good to hear the poet herself read her poems, and I was right. It's wonderful to have them read "correctly." However, it would have been better if I followed along with the print version to see where one poem ended and another began. I realize that poetry is a visual and an auditory experience.
These poems are not political but about family, childhood, and compassion. She praises reading, creativity, and art. She includes poems about childhood homelands, their importance, and their role in our lives and memories.
The third section of the book is poems about the holy land. What a concept: not a specific land, but life itself that is sacred. The poems about Palestine, its meaning, the deaths of both Jews and Arabs, what it means to Palestinians, and how children are affected are particularly meaningful.
Challenges for which this counts:
- Alphabet (Title)--E
- Cover Lovers--Floral elements
- Diversity--Palestinian author
- Literary Escapes--Palestine, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Texas
No comments
Post a Comment