Naomi Shihab Nye Analysis

Arab American poetry has flourished since the 19th century as a reaction of the immigration in America in 18th century. The Arab-American poets have influenced by the cultural and social background and have affected their thoughts, beliefs, and works. A diverse cultural backgrounds may interfere in the work of the poet. And there are many Arab American poets, who expresses their personal thoughts through poetry. Naomi Shihab Nye is one of these poets who uses poetry to express her cultural and personal perspective. Naomi Shihab Nye is a poet from a Palestinian father and an American mother, her bi-cultural background shows in her poetry. The turning point in Nye 's life as a writer is when she visits her grandmother in Palestine at the age of fourteen, after that she starts to write about her two different cultures and the ability to

The poet describes herself as "a wandering poet" because of the workshops she holds around the world and being an inspiration for people of all ages. Her poems, mostly about her experience as an Arab-American poet and addresses a cultural issue through an ordinary event. Nye constantly insists on the possible coexistence between her two cultures, in contrast, she writes about the struggle of the Palestinians and how the Arab resist cooperating or to coexist. Therefore, the conflict in her poems reflects the conflict she has about wanting to connect them and the pain she feels for the Arab, who doesn 't live in their country. Naomi Shihab Nye has exposed the need for coexistence, and the affirmation of the Arab-American identity in "Arabic Coffee", "Half-and-Half", and "Blood" from 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of Middle East, and "Arabic" from her collection Red