Red Suitcase - Naomi Shihab Nye

nPoet, teacher, essayist, anthologist, songwriter and singer, Naomi Shihab Nye is one of the country's most acclaimed writers. Her voice is generous; her vision true; her subjects ordinary people, and ordinary situations which, when rendered through her language, become remarkable. In this, her fourth full collection of poetry, we see with new eyes-a grandmother's scarf, an alarm clock, a man carrying his son on his shoulders. nValentine for Ernest Mann n nYou can't order a poem like you order a taco. nWalk up to the counter and say, I'll take two nand expect it to handed back to you non a shiny plate. n nStill, I like you spirit. nAnyone who says, Here's my address, nwrite me a poem, deserves something in reply. nSo I'll tell a secret instead: npoems hide. In the bottoms of our shoes, nthey are sleeping. They are the shadows ndrifting across our ceilings the moment nbefore we wake up. What we have to do nis live in a way that lets us find them. n nOnce I knew a man who gave his wife ntwo skunks for a valentine. nHe couldn't understand why she was crying. nI thought they had such beautiful eyes. nAnd he was serious. He was a serious man nwho lived in a serious way. Nothing was ugly njust because the world said so. He really nliked those skunks. So, he re-invented them nas valentines and they became beautiful. nAt least, to him. And the poems that had been hiding nin the eyes of skunks for centuries ncrawled out and curled up at his feet. n nMaybe if we re-invent whatever our lives give us nwe find poems. Check your garage, the odd sock nin your drawer, the person you almost like, but not quite. nAnd let me know.n