NPM 2018: Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners

National Poetry Month 2018
"Give praise with friends near and far,
flinging words to the sky!"
- Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

I had big plans to finish Voices in the Air:  Poems for Listeners  by Naomi Shihab Nye before I attended the May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture on Saturday evening at Western University. But I failed. April is way too busy! However, I sat down and finished the book this morning. I'll share my thoughts about the lecture for Poetry Friday's post.

Today, I want to share some of the nuggets, the word gifts I love from this book. Maybe they will entice you to purchase your own copy so you can read the rest of the poem/book. I checked it out from the library, but this is a book that I want to own.

"This sequence of ninety-five poems pays tribute to the essential voices past and present that have the power to provoke us, lead us, and give us hope.

Slow down. 

Turn the page.

Breathe.

Listen."

(from the inside book flap)

Do not skip the introduction to this book. It's five pages of lovely writing before you dive into the three major sections of the book -

Messages, Voices in the Air, and More Worlds.

And here are some of the word gifts I collected from the book:

Messages 

"Peonies       in a house

         profoundly uplift          the house

never say no   to peonies"

(from "Time's Low Note")

Voices in the Air 

"Who can help us?

     Yellow beam

           spiral sunshine

                   legacy"

(from "For Aziz")

"Words finding friends

   even if written on envelope flaps

   or left in a drawer."

(from "Emily")

More Worlds

"Be brave

  Little things

  Still matter most"

(from "Anti-Inaugural")

And finally an excerpt from the poem "Woven by Air, Texture of Air" as featured on the back cover of the book:

                                  " . . . And sing, sing freely,

   never let anything get in the way of your singing,"