When did you first get lost in Monet?
At five, adrift in joy
Saint Louis Art Museum
Where do you go? What do you see? calling to me
from the bottom of the pond
Art was a place to be held in
Paul Klee my best uncle always brought a gift
Rothko
not mysterious at all
a room in the mind
Today a friend steps into our home saying
Whoever painted that, loved Max Beckmann
Not only loved, but studied with
remembering my mom’s stories
how he spoke only in German
his wife translating in class
We are related through artists
we love one gaze into Florine Stettheimer’s world
or a whole day with Mona Hatoum at the Menil
eclipses all pronouncements
about politics
shakes the sky
O Chuck Ramirez
your open suitcases
elegant brooms
I cannot give up on humans now
NAOMI SHIHAB NYE
Naomi Shihab Nye has lived in San Antonio for many years and works as a traveling poet. She loves to look at art in every country and city she visits. Nye is a National Book Award finalist and the winner of four Pushcart Prizes. Her most recent book, Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners, was published in February.