Nye - The tiny journalist: poems

THE
Tiny Journalist Naomi Shihab Nye THE
Tiny Journalist POEMS American Poets Continuum Series, No. 170 BOA Editions, Ltd. Rochester, NY 2019 Copyright 2019 by Naomi Shihab Nye All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America First Edition 19 20 21 22 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For information about permission to reuse any material from this book, please contact The Permissions Company at . Publications by BOA Editions, Ltd.a not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3) of the United States Internal Revenue Codeare made possible with funds from a variety of sources, including public funds from the Literature Program of the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; and the County of Monroe, NY. Private funding sources include the Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation; the Mary S. Mulligan Charitable Trust; the Rochester Area Community Foundation; the Ames-Amzalak Memorial Trust in memory of Henry Ames, Semon Amzalak, and Dan Amzalak; and contributions from many individuals nationwide.

See Colophon on for special individual acknowledgments. Cover Design: Sandy Knight Cover Art: House with Two Gardens by Christina Brinkman Interior Design and Composition: Richard Foerster BOA Logo: Mirko Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Nye, Naomi Shihab, author. Title: The tiny journalist : poems / Naomi Shihab Nye. Description: First edition. | Rochester, NY : BOA Editions, Ltd., [2019] | Series: American poets continuum series, ; no. 170 | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018050933 (print) | LCCN 2018055328 (ebook) | ISBN 9781942683841 (ebook) | ISBN 9781942683728 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781942683735 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: American poetryWomen authors21st century. Classification: LCC PS3564.Y44 (ebook) | LCC PS3564.Y44 A6 2019 (print) | DDC 811/.54dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018050933 BOA Editions, Ltd. 250 North Goodman Street, Suite 306 Rochester, NY 14607 www.boaeditions.org A.

Poulin, Jr., Founder (19381996) In memory
May Mansoor Munn
author of Where Do Dreams and Dreaming Go?
A Palestinian Quaker in America

And in honor of Janna Jihad Ayyad
and her cousin Ahed Tamimi
all young people devoted to justice
and sharing their voices. We will never give up in the peace place, in the Holy Land, well see the peace one day. Janna Jihad Ayyad I am particularly inspired by the people of Gaza who put all of us to shame with their resilience and steadfastness. Sani Meo, Publisher, This Week in Palestine From presidents Truman to Trump, US administrations have never actually been an honest broker of peace between Palestinians and Israelis, regardless of all the rhetoric and official positions. Mohamed Mohamed, Palestine Center Brief No. 320 Revived bitterness is unnecessary unless One is ignorant.

Marianne Moore, American poet Apartheid means fundamentalist clergy spearheading the deepening of segregation, inequality, supremacism, and subjugation. Apartheid means separate, segregated roads and highways for Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank. Apartheid means hundreds of attacks by settlers targeting Palestinian property, livelihoods, and lives, without convictions, charges, or even suspects. Apartheid means uncounted Palestinians jailed without trial, shot dead without trial, shot dead in the back while fleeing and without just cause. Apartheid means Israeli officials using the army, police, military courts, and draconian administrative detentions, not only to head off terrorism, but to curtail nearly every avenue of non-violent protest available to Palestinians. Bradley Burston, Haaretz, 2015

Authors Note: My fathers Palestinian family, refugees from their Jerusalem home after 1948, lived in a village not far from Nabi Saleh village, where Janna Jihad Ayyad and her family live.

I lived between Jerusalem and Ramallah as a teenager and witnessed many of the struggles firsthand, which have unfortunately only heightened and intensified in the succeeding years. It is important to clarify that these poems or sections thereof are not Jannas actual words. They are my words, imagining Jannas circumstances via her Facebook postings and my own personal and collective knowledge of the situation she was born into and lives with on a daily basis. So the texts presented here are a blending of storiesmy fathers, Jannas, my ongoing research, and my own personal experience living there and on many subsequent journeys. In the way of all poetry, hopefully it gets something true or right. Also: Since Palestinians are also Semites, being pro-justice
for Palestinians is never an anti-Semitic position, no matter what anybody says.

Contents

I. Morning Song For Janna The tiny journalist will tell us what she sees. Document the moves, the dust, soldiers blocking the road. Yes, she knows how to take a picture with her phone. Holds it high like a balloon. Yes, she would prefer to dance and play, would prefer the world to be pink.

It is her job to say what she sees, what is happening. From her vantage point everything is hugebut dont look down on her. Shes bigger than you are. If you stomp her garden each leaf expands its view. Dont hide what you do. adjusting your impenetrable vest. adjusting your impenetrable vest.

What could she have that you want? Her treasures, the shiny buttons her grandmother loved. Her cousin, her uncle. There might have been a shirt The tiny journalist notices action on far away roads farther even than the next village. She takes counsel from bugs so puffs of dust find her first. Could that be a friend?They pretended not to see us. What was our crime? That we likedrespect as they do? That we have pride? She stares through a hole in the fence, barricade of words and wire, feels the rising fire before anyone strikes a match. What was our crime? That we likedrespect as they do? That we have pride? She stares through a hole in the fence, barricade of words and wire, feels the rising fire before anyone strikes a match.

She has a better idea. Moon over Gaza I am lonely for my friends. They liked me, trusted my coming. I think they looked up at me more than other people do. I who have been staring down so long see no reason for the sorrows humans make. I dislike the scuffle of bombs blasting very much.

It blocks my view. A landscape of grieving feels different afterwards. Different sheen from a simple desert, rubble of walls, silent children who once said my name like a prayer. Sometimes I am bigger than a golden plate, a giant coin, and everyone gasps. Maybe it is wrong that I am so calm. Exotic Animals, Book for Children Armadillo means little armored one.

Some of us become this to survive in our own countries. I would like to see an armadillo crossing the road. Our armor is invisible, it polishes itself. We might have preferred to be a softer animal, wouldnt you? With fur and delicate paws, like an African Striped Grass Mouse, also known as Zebra Mouse. Janna At 7, making videos. At 10, raising the truth flag.

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