Honeybee

Naomi Shihab Nye is the author of my favorite YA novel, "Habibi".  The novel read like poetry in many places, so I was excited to see this book of poems.  One of my favorite poems in "Honeybee" is one that I came upon several months ago on a poetry blog.

Consolation

This morning the newspaper

was too terrible to deliver

so the newsboy just pitched out

a little sheaf

of Kleenex.

Another one that I really love is:

Don't Say

God said.

You made it up

then put it in God's pocket.

God may have thrown it out already.

Much of Nye's poetry is centered on peace.  She has little use for the Bush administration, as evidenced in this poem:

Culture of Life

George W. Bush believes

in a "culture of life."

This is very interesting to those

who have recently died

because of his decisions.

They discuss it regularly.

What could they have done

  differently?

to be alive?

If only they had been born

  in another country

or lived in a different neighborhood,

the culture might have included them too.

Actually they liked life a lot.

They can't stop thinking about 

their teacups and blankets.

The scent of sheep wool

in a warm room.

Click of almond shells

in a bowl.

That simple coming-home feeling

when someone happy to see you 

greets you.

Never could they have imagined

being dead and thinking about teacups.

There are also poems of little things in life that having nothing to do with war or politics.  This one made me smile.

While You Were Out

A crow

with a yellow Post-it note

stuck to its beak

paused on the feeder

beyond the window

looked around twice

nodded its head

then flew away.

Big Day

at the office.

Like most poetry, this book was very nice to sit and read for a few quiet minutes every day, and not all at once.

Also, I feel like I should disclose that I was not a huge fan of the poems about Honeybees.