{"id":8589,"date":"2025-07-04T08:01:33","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T15:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=8589"},"modified":"2025-07-04T10:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T17:58:09","slug":"naomi-shihab-nye-every-day-as-wide-as-a-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/04\/naomi-shihab-nye-every-day-as-wide-as-a-field\/","title":{"rendered":"Naomi Shihab Nye – Every Day as Wide as a Field"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every Day as Wide as a Field
\nby Naomi Shihab Nye<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

Standing outside
\nstaring at a tree
\ngentles our eyes<\/p>\n

We cheer
\nto see fireflies
\nwinking again<\/p>\n

Where have our friends been
\nall the long hours?
\nMinds stretching<\/p>\n

beyond the field
\nbecome
\ntheir own skies<\/p>\n

Windows doors
\ngrow more
\nimportant<\/p>\n

Look through a word
\nswing that sentence
\nwide open<\/p>\n

Kneeling outside
\nto find
\nsturdy green<\/p>\n

glistening blossoms
\nunder the breeze
\nthat carries us silently<\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

And there were so many more poems to read!
\nCountless friends to listen to.
\nWe didn\u2019t have to be in the same room\u2014
\nthe great modern magic.
\nEverywhere together now.
\nEven scared together now
\nfrom all points of the globe
\nwhich lessened it somehow.
\nHopeful together too, exchanging
\nwinks in the dark, the little lights blinking.
\nWhen your hope shrinks
\nyou might feel the hope of
\nsomeone far away lifting you up.
\nHope is the thing\u2026
\nHope was always the thing!
\nWhat else did we give each other
\nfrom such distances?
\nBreath of syllables,
\nsing to me from your balcony
\nplease! Befriend me
\nin the deep space.
\nWhen you paused for a poem
\nit could reshape the day
\nyou had just been living.<\/em><\/p>\n


\/ Image by Tito Rollis<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

A poem today by the wonderful Palestinian-American poet, Naomi Shihab Nye.<\/p>\n

Standing outside
\nstaring at a tree
\ngentles our eyes<\/i><\/p>\n

Aren\u2019t those wonderful opening lines?<\/p>\n

I encourage you to say the lines out loud. Standing. Staring. That alliteration, with the \u201cst-st.\u201d And a secondary level of alliteration with the use of the \u201ct\u201d sound in nearly every word of these first few lines. We can play with the lines on our tongue. St-anding. St-aring. Out-side. T-ree. Gent-les.<\/p>\n

And then we remember to pay attention to the words, what they are saying. <\/p>\n

She gives us permission to pause and gaze at a tree. It \u201cgentles\u201d our eyes. That line works on two levels. Looking at the tree makes our gaze and, more generally, our awareness gentler \u2014 somehow kinder to the world and to ourselves, at ease, at peace. But it also suggests that contemplating a tree tames the eyesight and, by extension, the mind. Do we let the eyes go wild and slice up reality into parcels that the erratic mind can then choose to latch onto or ignore? By resting with a patient green neighbor, we train the mind to cease its evasions and grasping, taming it to encounter the present moment.<\/p>\n

Minds stretching<\/p>\n

beyond the field
\nbecome
\ntheir own skies<\/i><\/p>\n

We expand. The world around us opens.<\/p>\n

Words can become windows. A poem a doorway.<\/p>\n

Look through a word
\nswing that sentence
\nwide open<\/i><\/p>\n

We just have to quiet down, so we can notice which phrases want to open for us \u2014 then we step through.<\/p>\n

Kneeling outside
\nto find
\nsturdy green<\/p>\n

glistening blossoms
\nunder the breeze
\nthat carries us silently<\/i><\/p>\n

The second section of the poem seems to step back and give is a broader sense of what she is saying:<\/p>\n

And there were so many more poems to read!
\nCountless friends to listen to.<\/i><\/p>\n

Poetry. Friends. Poems as friends. Friends speaking to us through poetry, through space, through time.<\/p>\n

Coming together, a shared community which invites us to join in. When we feel disconnected, words of wisdom, words of kindness, words of vision reconnect us. <\/p>\n

Hope is the thing\u2009\u2026
\nHope was always the thing!<\/i><\/p>\n

Shared hopes. Or, when hope eludes us, shared fears. The whole human experience. Sharing allows us to recognize ourselves in each other. Seeing deeply into another, we come to know ourselves more fully.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where real transformation happens. When we allow ourselves to slip into the awareness of our shared being, as a good poem invites us to do, doors open in us.<\/p>\n

When you paused for a poem
\nit could reshape the day
\nyou had just been living.<\/i><\/p>\n

=<\/p>\n

A reminder to myself: Ivan, challenge yourself to connect with and protect vulnerable outsiders in your community. Learn to balance inner peace with a fiery voice and firm action. Raise good trouble. Upset the people you have to. Kindle a kind heart.<\/p>\n


\n


\n[BOOK LIST REPEATING]
\n<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n\n\n
\n<\/td>\n\nNaomi Shihab Nye<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

US & Palestine (1952 \u2013 )
\nSecular or Eclectic<\/a><\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

More poetry by Naomi Shihab Nye<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every Day as Wide as a Field by Naomi Shihab Nye 1 Standing outside staring at a tree gentles our eyes We cheer to see fireflies winking again Where have our friends been all the long hours? Minds stretching beyond the field become their own skies Windows doors grow more important Look through a word […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2495,2595,2594,2596,620,1655,753],"class_list":["post-8589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-community","tag-doorway","tag-naomi-shihab-nye","tag-palestinian-poetry","tag-tree","tag-window","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8589"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8591,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8589\/revisions\/8591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}