The Flag of Childhood: Poems From the Middle East

By Naomi Shihab Nye

A stirring anthology of sixty poems from the Middle East selected by honored anthologist, writer, and editor Naomi Shihab Nye.

This beautiful collection of eloquent poems from Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Iraq, and elsewhere open windows into the hearts and souls of people we usually meet only on the nightly news. What we see when we look through these windows is the love of family, friends, and for the Earth, the daily occurrences of life that touch us forever, the longing for a sense of place. What we learn is that beneath the veil of stereotypes, our human connections are stronger than our cultural differences.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aladdin
• Release date: Jun 30, 2008
• ISBN: 9781439112922

Naomi Shihab Nye

Naomi Shihab Nye was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her father was a Palestinian refugee and her mother an American of German and Swiss descent, and she spent her adolescence in both Jerusalem and San Antonio, Texas. She earned her BA from Trinity University in San Antonio. Naomi Shihab Nye describes herself as a “wandering poet.” She has spent more than forty years traveling the country and the world, leading writing workshops and inspiring students of all ages. Naomi Shihab Nye is the author and/or editor of more than thirty books. Her books of poetry for adults and young people include 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East (a finalist for the National Book Award); A Maze Me: Poems for Girls; Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners; Honeybee (winner of the Arab American Book Award); Cast Away: Poems of Our Time (one of the Washington Post’s best books of 2020); Come with Me: Poems for a Journey; and Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems. Her other volumes of poetry include Red Suitcase; Words Under the Words; Fuel; Transfer; You & Yours; Mint Snowball; and The Tiny Journalist. Her collections of essays include Never in a Hurry and I’ll Ask You Three Times, Are You Okay?: Tales of Driving and Being Driven. Naomi Shihab Nye has edited nine acclaimed poetry anthologies, including This Same Sky: Poems from Around the World; The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems from the Middle East; Time You Let Me In: 25 Poets Under 25; and What Have You Lost? Her picture books include Sitti’s Secrets, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter, and her acclaimed fiction includes Habibi; The Turtle of Oman (winner of the Middle East Book Award) and its sequel, The Turtle of Michigan (honorable mention for the Arab American Book Award). Naomi Shihab Nye has been a Lannan Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Witter Bynner Fellow (Library of Congress). She has received a Lavan Award from the Academy of American Poets, the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, the Paterson Poetry Prize, four Pushcart Prizes, the Robert Creeley Award, and "The Betty," from Poets House, for service to poetry, and numerous honors for her children’s literature, including two Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards. In 2011 Nye won the Golden Rose Award given by the New England Poetry Club, the oldest poetry-reading series in the country. Her work has been presented on National Public Radio on A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer’s Almanac. She has been featured on two PBS poetry specials, including The Language of Life with Bill Moyers, and she also appeared on NOW with Bill Moyers. She has been affiliated with the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin for twenty years and served as poetry editor at the Texas Observer for twenty years. In 2019–20 she was the poetry editor for the New York Times Magazine. She is Chancellor Emeritus for the Academy of American Poets and laureate of the 2013 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, and in 2017 the American Library Association presented Naomi Shihab Nye with the 2018 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award. In 2018 the Texas Institute of Letters named her the winner of the Lon Tinkle Award for Lifetime Achievement. She was named the 2019–21 Young People's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. In 2020 she was awarded the Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement by the National Book Critics Circle. In 2021 she was voted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Naomi Shihab Nye is professor of creative writing-poetry at Texas State University.

Book preview

Naomi Shihab Nye is an award-winning writer and editor whose work has appeared widely. She edited the ALA Notable international poetry collection This Same Sky. Her books of poems include Fuel, Red Suitcase, and Words Under the Words. A recent Guggenheim fellow, she is also the author of the young adult novel Habibi, which was named an ALA Notable Book, a Best Book for Young Adults, a winner of the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award as well as the Book Publishers of Texas award from the Texas Institute of Letters. Naomi lives in San Antonio, Texas, with her husband, Michael, and their son, Madison.

This collection of poems flourishes like a blessed garden within the walls of a fortress. It is a miracle of life, with lush details of figs and rice and tea, of danger, longing, and love. Under the ancient cadences, under the vibrant imagery lies a contemporary tension that flashes to the surface, bringing a strong, Middle Eastern light to shine upon the rubble wrought by today’s conflicts. Most of the poets in this collection are still living, still creating, still bearing witness to the struggles of their brothers and sisters. The unfamiliar geography of this poetry brings a sweet, exotic taste to the American palate. Yet if Americans can read these words not only with their minds, but with their hearts, they will come to understand that in the space between our footsteps resides eloquent, universal truths.

Karen Hesse

More than five hundred calls for entries were mailed, faxed, and E-mailed to poets, artists, cultural institutions, universities, and galleries in the Middle East. We are grateful to the many individuals and institutions who responded.

The editors would also like to express sincere and lasting thanks to Salwa Mikdadi Nashashibi of the Cultural and Visual Arts Resource. Ms. Nashashibi was, from her desk in Jordan, an invaluable and expert sleuth. This book would not have been possible without her.

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

First Aladdin Paperbacks edition February 2002

Copyright © 1998 by Naomi Shihab Nye

Pages 95-97 constitute an extension of the copyright page.

ALADDIN PAPERBACKS

An imprint of Simon & Schuster

Children’s Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Also available as a Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers unabridged hardcover edition under the title The Space Between our Footsteps: Poems and Paintings from the Middle East.

Designed by Debra Sfetsios

The text of this book was set in Goudy.

Printed in the United States of America

6 8 10 9 7 5

The Library of Congress has cataloged the original hardcover edition as follows:

The space between our footsteps : poems and paintings from the Middle East / selected by Naomi Shihab Nye.

p. cm.

Selected poetry from Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish.

Summary: A collection of poetry and full-color artwork from Middle Eastern countries.

ISBN 0-689-81233-7 (h.c.)

eISBN 978-1-439-11292-2

1. Young adult poetry—Translations into English. [1. Poetry—Collections.] I. Nye, Naomi Shihab.

PN6109.97.S63 1998

808.81′00835—dc21

97-18622 CIP AC

ISBN 0-689-85172-3 (pbk.)

in the spirit of the children at the Cairo library who said, during the worst sandstorm of the twentieth century, just keep reading!

Introduction

Everything has changed. People keep saying this since the tragic attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in

Reviews for The Flag of Childhood

[sluper1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The author presents a collection of sixty poems revealing a different side of Middle East. These poems try to substitute all the stereotypes the new have created and replace it by love of family, friends and daily live that touch us forever. These poems are intended for a young audience, however I believe that many adults will gain some knowledge from these poems. Some of the poems you really have to read over and over to understand what the author is trying to portray. This is a great poetry book to have in classroom especially when learning about Middle East.