A Maze Me

by Nye, Naomi Shihab

• ISBN13: 9780060581893
• ISBN10: 0060581891
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-12-28
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

Life is a tangle of twisting paths. Some short. Some long. There are dead ends. And there are choices. And wrong turns, and detours, and yield signs, and instruction booklets, and star maps, and happiness, and loneliness. And friends. And sisters. And love. And poetry.Life is a maze. You are a maze. Amazed. And amazing.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Big Head
Rose	p. 11
Mystery	p. 13
Ringing	p. 14
Toys on the Planet Earth	p. 16
Every Cat Has a Story	p. 17
Visiting My Old Kindergarten Teacher...	p. 18
Worry	p. 19
The Boys	p. 20
Where Are You?	p. 21
Ellipse	p. 22
Big Head, Big Face	p. 23
Supple Cord	p. 24
Every Day	p. 25
The Bucket	p. 26
Little Chair	p. 27
Secret Hum
Secret	p. 33
Some Days	p. 34
Eye	p. 35
I Want to Meet the Girl	p. 36
In the School Cafeteria	p. 37
Crush	p. 38
Where He Is	p. 39
Groups of People Going Places Together	p. 40
Sifter	p. 42
I Said to Dana's Mother	p. 44
Because of Poems	p. 45
Having Forgotten to Bring a Book...	p. 46
If the Shoe Doesn't Fit	p. 47
On the Same Day My Parents Were Arguing	p. 48
Changed	p. 49
Hairdo	p. 50
Message in the Thin Wind Before Bedtime	p. 51
High Hopes	p. 52
Bad Dream	p. 53
Magical Geography
People I Admire	p. 57
My Body Is a Mystery	p. 58
Feeling Wise	p. 60
Sometimes I Pretend	p. 61
Poor Monday	p. 62
Watermelon Truck	p. 63
Margaret	p. 64
My Sad Aunt	p. 65
The List	p. 66
You're Welcome!	p. 67
Moving House	p. 68
Making a Mosaic	p. 70
Necklace	p. 72
From Labrador, 1800s	p. 74
Sweet Dreams Please
Historical Marker	p. 79
Baby-sitting Should Not Be Called	p. 80
Abandoned Homestead...	p. 82
Turtle	p. 83
Little Blanco River	p. 84
The Bird Pose	p. 85
Meteor Watch	p. 86
Writing in a Silo	p. 88
Finding a Pink Ribbon...	p. 90
Bird in Hand	p. 91
The Word PEACE	p. 92
To the Tree Frogs Outside the Window	p. 94
Messages from Everywhere	p. 95
Something True
Day After Halloween, Jack-o'-Lantern Candle...	p. 99
What Travel Does	p. 100
Abandoned Post Office, Big Bend	p. 102
Learning to Talk	p. 104
Over the Weather	p. 106
On the Sunset Limited Train	p. 107
Across the Aisle	p. 108
Mona's Taco	p. 110
A Way Around	p. 111
To My Texas Handbook	p. 112
Thoughts That Came in Floating	p. 113
Index of First Lines	p. 116
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

A Maze Me
Poems for Girls

Rose

A very large spider
wove her fancy web
between the Don Juan rosebush
and the Queen's Crown vine.
We greeted her every day
going in and out.
We had so many destinations
but she just swung there
in the air
in the day's long stare
that grows so hot by four o'clock
we boycott the whole front yard.
By evening we'd be outside again
breathing jasmine
watering honeysuckle
plucking mint
and she'd be wrapping
her little flies and wasps
in sticky sacks.
The trolley rang its bell at us
and we waved back.
It was nice living with Rose.
Living our different lives
side by side.
One night wild thunder
shook the trees,
the sky crackled and split,
the winds blew hard
and by morning
Rose was gone.
Did she wash away?
Did she find a safer home?
She keeps spinning her elegant web
inside us
so long
so long
after the light made it shine.

A Maze Me
Poems for Girls. Copyright © by Naomi Nye. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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Excerpted from A Maze Me: Poems for Girls by Naomi Shihab Nye
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.