It’s pretty intriguing to follow poet Naomi Shihab Nye’s idea that most of us actually “think in poems” whether we know it or not. Rarely, as she points out, do you hear anyone say they feel worse after writing things down. That, she says, can be a tool to survive in hard times like these, to anchor our days - and to get into a conversation and community with all of the selves that live on in each of us at any given moment - “your child self, your older self, your confused self, your self-that-makes-a-lot-of-mistakes.” We also hear her read her beloved poem “Kindness” and tell us the story behind it.
Naomi Shihab Nye is the Young People's Poet Laureate through the Poetry Foundation and a professor of creative writing at Texas State University. Her recent books include The Tiny Journalist, Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners, Cast Away, and Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems. She received the 2019 Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle.
This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode "Naomi Shihab Nye — “Before You Know Kindness As the Deepest Thing Inside..." Find the transcript for that show at onbeing.org.
This show originally aired on July 28, 2016.
Rachel Naomi Remen – How We Live With Loss
[Unedited] Rachel Naomi Remen with Krista Tippett
David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough
"Everything is Waiting for You" by David Whyte
"Working Together" by David Whyte
"Sweet Darkness" by David Whyte
[Unedited] David Whyte with Krista Tippett
BONUS: A Defining Moment from Krista — Celebrating Our First 20 Years
Kimberley Wilson — Whole Body Mental Health
[Unedited] Kimberley Wilson with Krista Tippett
Robin Wall Kimmerer — The Intelligence of Plants
[Unedited] Robin Wall Kimmerer with Krista Tippett
Sylvia Boorstein – What We Nurture
A Lovingkindness Meditation with Sylvia Boorstein
[Unedited] Sylvia Boorstein with Krista Tippett
Pádraig Ó Tuama — “This fantastic argument of being alive”
[Unedited] Pádraig Ó Tuama with Krista Tippett
Ai-jen Poo and Tarana Burke — The Future of Hope 5
Avivah Zornberg — Human Becoming, Between Biblical Lines
[Unedited] Avivah Zornberg with Krista Tippett
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney
Selected Shorts
This American Life
The Frank Skinner Show
Judge John Hodgman