"Tell me how to live so many lives at once ..."
Fowzi, who beats everyone at dominoes; Ibtisam, who wanted to be a
doctor; Abu Mahmoud, who knows every eggplant and peach in his West Bank
garden; mysterious Uncle Mohammed, who moved to the mountain; a girl in
a red sweater dangling a book bag; children in velvet dresses who haunt
the candy bowl at the party; Baba Kamalyari, age 71; Mr. Dajani and his
swans; Sitti Khadra, who never lost her peace inside.
Maybe they have something to tell us.
Naomi Shihab Nye has been writing about being Arab-American, about
Jerusalem, about the West Bank, about family all her life. These new and
collected poems of the Middle East -- sixty in all -- appear together
here for the first time.