The river is famous to the fish. The loud voice is famous to silence, which knew it would inherit the earth before anybody said so. The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds watching him from the birdhouse. The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek. The idea you carry close to your bosom is famous to your bosom. The boot is famous to the earth, more famous than the dress shoe, which is famous only to floors. The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it and not at all famous to the one who is pictured. I want to be famous to shuffling men who smile while crossing streets, sticky children in grocery lines, famous as the one who smiled back. I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous, or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular, but because it never forgot what it could do.
Famous
About the poet
Naomi Shihab Nye
Naomi Shihab Nye was born on March 12, 1952, in St. Louis, Missouri, to a Palestinian father and an American mother. Nye is the author of numerous books of poems, most recently Cast Away: Poems for Our Time (Greenwillow Books, 2020). Her other books of poetry…
View profile & all 7 Poems / StoriesMore from Naomi Shihab Nye
Kindness
Before you know what kindness really isyou must lose things,
Two Countries
Skin remembers how long the years growwhen skin is not touched, a gray tunnel
Negotiations with a Volcano
We will call you "Agua" like the rivers and cool jugs.We will persuade the clouds to nestle around your neck
The Man Whose Voice Has Been Taken From His Throat
remains all supple hands and gestureskin of language
Fuel
Even at this late date, sometimes I have to look upthe word "receive." I received his deep
