“By acknowledging and shaping shared experience, we grow bigger.”

— Naomi Shihab Nye, Introduction to Salting the Ocean: 100 Poems by Young Poets, 2000

About Naomi Shihab Nye

Born 1952

Palestinian-American poet and author.

“Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.”

“It is really hard to be lonely very long in a world of words.”

“Writers, believers in words, could not give up words when the going got rough.”

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

“Remember that all is opinion.”

“What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have yet to be discovered.”

“Beauty is the mark God sets upon virtue.”

“Truth also has its roof, and bed, and board.”

“Heartily know, when half-gods go, the gods arrive.”