Shoulders

“Honoring the Mystery of Experience” by Teri Lesesne (1998)

Author and literacy advocate Teri Lesesne interviews Nye for Teacher Librarian, a journal for school library professionals. In the author portrait, “Honoring the Mystery of Experience,” Lesesne asks Nye probing questions about the genre of poetry, her writing process, and the challenges that come with being a female poet. Nye explains that poetry is the closest a medium gets to the way we as humans think, processing information in fragments of speech and vivid imagery. Her understanding of poetry as a continuation of natural human thought makes her work all the more accessible. “Shoulders” is a free verse poem (see: Literary Devices), making seamless connections across each line. The poem is written in simple language and can therefore be understood by a larger age range of readers. Lesesne’s conversation with Nye gives readers a more nuanced perspective of Nye as a writer through her own unique voice, offering further insight into her thoughts on kindness and poetry’s place in furthering human love.

All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks (2000)

American author, academic, and activist bell hooks offers radical new ways for readers to think about love in the context of their public and private lives in her novel All About Love: New Visions (2000). hooks explains how everyday notions of giving and receiving love often fail us, built on ideals established in early childhood. hooks reframes love as a tool for radical societal change, striving toward the same future Nye writes about in her poem “Shoulders.” hooks’s prose is visionary and striking, showing how love has the power to heal our intimate, individual wounds as well as our larger, societal ones. All About Love: New Visions leads with compassion, subverting the notion that love is weak and naïve in one fell swoop.

“Naomi Shihab Nye on the Art of Teaching Poetry” via The Academy of American Poets (2013)

Recorded at the 2013 Poets Forums as part of the Chancellors Discussions, a series of intimate talks in which some of the most renowned poets of our time speak about issues central to the world of poetry today, Naomi Shihab Nye discusses the nuances of teaching poetry to students young and old. Nye’s major concern lies in categorization: It is the poet’s firm belief that poetry cannot and should not be confined to the box of “highbrow literature.” Instead, Nye asserts that poetry is for everyone, striving to make poetry accessible in her workshops and classes. This conversation is in collaboration with the Academy of American Poets and introduces readers to Nye’s philosophies as someone who reads as well as writes poetry, grappling with the genre’s nuances just like everyone else.