Shoulders

Naomi Shihab Nye published “Shoulders” in her seventh collection of poetry, Red Suitcase (1994). “Shoulders” discusses the importance of caring for one another as seen through the image of a father carrying his young son across a busy street. Nye uses this intimate family portrait to examine humanity at large, centering love as the most essential tool in raising the next generation (see: Poem Analysis).

Nye asserts that poetry does not exist in a vacuum. Her influences include poets such as Carl Sandburg, William Stafford, and Lucille Clifton; each of their works being essential to the creation of her own. Nye has Sandberg’s penchant for colloquial speech and Stafford’s fascination with ordinary and local subjects. She writes about identity with the same passion and hope found in Clifton’s poetry. However, she crafts a voice that is still uniquely her own. “Shoulders” serves as a prime example of Nye’s warmth and human insight, exposing readers to an alternative future in which love and empathy prevail (see: Further Literary Resources, “All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks”).

Poet Biography

Naomi Shihab Nye was born on March 12, 1952 in St. Louis, Missouri to an American mother and Palestinian father. Nye spent her adolescence in Ramallah in Palestine, the Old City in Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas. Nye received her bachelor of arts in English and world religions from Trinity University in Texas, remaining in the US post-graduation.

Nye began publishing her work in the 1980s and is the author of numerous collections of poetry. To date, Nye has written and contributed to over 30 volumes of poetry, lending her voice to these projects as both a creative writer and conscientious editor. Nye is also the author of several works of children’s literature, including Habibi (1997), a novel for which she received the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award in 1998.

Nye gives voice to her experiences within Arab and American culture, discussing the nuances of intersectional identity throughout much of her poetry. Nye emphasizes how ordinary connections between people from various walks of life is one of the most extraordinary parts of being human. Her poems offer a fresh perspective on local life, acknowledging that even the passerby has a life just as complex as her own. Nye is a self-proclaimed “wandering poet,” inspired by her childhood memories and lifetime of travels, adding an ever-changing sense of place to her poetry that parallels her multicultural thematic concerns.

Nye has received numerous awards and fellowships throughout her writing career, among them four Pushcart Prizes, the 2013 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, and the Trinity University Distinguished Alumna Award. In 1997, Nye became a Guggenheim Poetry Fellow. In 2000, the Library of Congress awarded her the Witter Bynner Fellowship, and most recently, in 2019, the Poetry Foundation designated Nye their Young People’s Poet Laureate for the 2019-2021 term.

Nye’s poetry is accessible, warm, and profoundly resonant for readers young and old. Nye is a Professor of Creative Writing at Texas State University, and currently lives in San Antonio, Texas with her husband, Michael.

Poem Text

Shihab Nye, Naomi. “Shoulders.” 1994. The Academy of American Poets.

Summary

The speaker of Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem, “Shoulders,” observes a father carrying his sleeping son across a busy street. The speaker describes the father’s actions as gentle and precise throughout the first four stanzas of the poem: He looks both ways before he crosses the road, and he cradles his child into his chest so no car can “splash him” (Line 4), protecting him from the pouring rain. The child is deemed precious, “sensitive cargo” (Line 6), and it is the father’s job to ensure that no harm comes his way.

In the final stanzas of the poem, the speaker switches to the first-person plural. The speaker asserts that humanity will not be able to sustain life if it cannot sustain love.