I don’t know if you know this about me (or care), but I love poetry.
I mean it in the most sincere, un-flippant way;
I L-O-V-E the written word in poem form.
I had a little claim-to-fame encounter this past weekend; it reminded me of a poem I memorized for presentation while taking a poetry writing class my final year in college. This one stirs me up every time I read it; the words are rich and reach me.
Famous
The river is famous to the fish.
The loud voice is famous to silence,
which knew it would inherit the earth
before anybody said so.
The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds
watching him from the birdhouse.
The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.
The idea you carry close to your bosom
is famous to your bosom.
The boot is famous to the earth,
more famous than the dress shoe,
which is famous only to floors.
The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it
and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.
I want to be famous to shuffling men
who smile while crossing streets,
sticky children in grocery lines,
famous as the one who smiled back.
I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,
or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,
but because it never forgot what it could do.
~Naomi Shihab Nye
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