Author: Jamie Dedes

this photograph is of International Poet Naomi Shihab Nye at a book signing courtesy of Micahd under CC BY-SA 3.0 “Poetry calls us to pause. There is so much we overlook, while the abundance around us continues to shimmer on its own.” Naomi Shihab Nye Naomi Shihab Nye (نعومي شهاب ناي‎) (b. 1952) is a poet, novelist, essayist, anthologist and peacemaker. He father was a Palestinian; her mother, an American. She started writing when she was six-years-old. The breadth of her published work encompasses poetry, young-adult fiction, picture books, essays and novels. She calls herself a “wandering poet” but refers to San Antonio, Texas as home. Habibi [recommended and not just for teens] is her 1997 young adult novel. It’s the semi-autobiographica

“This is a space where we hope you’ll delight in learning how much you have in common with “other” peoples. We hope that your visits here will help you to love (respect) not fear. “We acknowledge that there are enormous theological differences and historical resentments that carve wedges among and within the traditions and ethnic or national groups, but we believe that ultimately self-preservation, common sense, and human solidarity will empower connections and collaboration and overcome division and disorder.” excerpt from The BeZine Mission Statement CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR Our Annual 100,000 Poets and Friends for Change Issue September 2019 Calls for submissions of poems, feature articles, fiction, creative nonfiction, art and photography,

that clock ticking in time to our hearts beatingour muscles flexing, our topsy-turvy living of liveswhile moon drips pewter mist below the hemispheres,the stars are numberless and dependable and thesun rises and sets and rises again, a hope-filled forever tick tock, the heart,no more beats in timecardiac arrest what then, I wonder,probably just another day,a day like any other with the moon spilling golden light across the galaxy,the stars unaccountably brilliant, cut and polished gemsand you in the Light always ascending, forevermore radiant “Like the sun, only when you set in the west can you rise in the east.” Rumi © 2017, Jamie Dedes (The Poet by Day and The BeZine)