You and Yours

July 25, 2005
Redemptive moments and struggling households from south Texas to the Middle East dominate the ample, likable latest collection from the prolific Nye (The Space Between Our Footsteps
; Fuel
, etc.), whose Palestinian-American heritage forms part of the staging of these poems: "What countries may we/ sing into?/ What lines should we all/ be crossing?" her opening poem asks, and the two halves of her volume provide calm answers. Part one covers Nye's personal experience, at home with her child in San Antonio or as a "Frequent Frequent Flyer" enjoying the sights of Scotland. Witty prose poems alternate with clean-lined, moving verse reminiscent at times of Stanley Kunitz. Part two covers the Middle East with indignity and compassion, considering the blameless citizens for whom "to be able to say/ this is a day and I live in it safely,/ for those I love, was all." Nye has produced several volumes of poetry (and a novel) for children and teens: the careful simplicities (and the attempted optimism) here sometimes keep younger readers in mind. Yet she retains a grownup's sense of our common failings, as when she compares Palestinians in particular, and human beings in general, to flying cranes: "If the ground satisfied their dreams," she muses, "the sky would miss them."

August 1, 2005
If one of the four elements were assigned to Nye's poetry, it would be water because her poems are clear, flowing, essential, and capable of not only keeping one afloat but also slipping into even the most tightly closed corner of the mind. In her newest collection, this internationally renowned writer draws on her Palestinian American heritage, which renders her particularly attuned to the long-suffering of the Middle East, as well as her appreciation for the pleasures and puzzles of everyday life. Nye takes her title from the closing of a letter, "Best wishes for you and yours," and asks a crucial question: "Where does 'yours' end?" Tender yet forceful, funny and commonsensical, reflective and empathic, Nye writes radiant poems of nature and piercing poems of war, always touching base with homey details and radiant portraits of family and neighbors. Nye's clarion condemnation of prejudice and injustice reminds readers that most Americans have ties to other lands and that all concerns truly are universal.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)