The Words Under the Words

“The Words Under the Words” paints a portrait of the poet’s grandmother, who lived her entire life in the Old City north of Jerusalem and was a devout Muslim. The poem makes reference to the grandmother’s religious beliefs as well as the way changing political and social structures changed around her during her lifetime.

Nye’s grandmother was born in 1888 in the country that was, at the time, known as Palestine, a predominantly Arab, Muslim country. In 1947 Great Britain renounced the land and the United Nations split the country into two, with 56 percent belonging to the by-then 650,000 Jewish people and the city of Jerusalem internationally controlled by the UN. Due to this split many Palestinians lost homes and land they had lived on for generations. Nye’s father’s family lost their home and much of their money. Nye’s father’s family lived through the war that broke out in 1947 and lasted until an armistice agreement in 1949.

Ultimately Nye’s father left the region for the United States, but his mother and other family members stayed behind. As his mother became older and needed more help, the family moved back to the region to tend to Nye’s grandmother. This year of living north of Jerusalem had a profound impact on the young poet, who wrote about this experience in two other books for young people, Habibi and Sitti’s Secrets.