Read a poem, talk about it, read it again.
Episode 098 Vocabulary Of Dearness - Naomi Shihab Nye - Reflections Week Ep. 6
4/30/2020
Connor and Jack close out Poetry Month 2020 with a series of shorter episodes about short poems that can be comforting springboards to reflection and contemplation. In this episode, they discuss Naomi Shihab Nye's poem "Vocabulary of Dearness." They explore the way the poem captures the power of language and go down the rabbit hole of some of their favorite words.
Vocabulary of Dearness
By: Naomi Shihab Nye
How a single word
may shimmer and rise
off the page, a wafer of
syllabic light, a bulb
of glowing meaning,
whatever the word,
try “tempestuous” or “suffer,”
any word you have held
or traded so it lives a new life
the size of two worlds.
Say you carried it
up a hill and it helped you
move. Without this
the days would be thin sticks
thrown down in a clutter of leaves,
and where is the rake?