Transcript A Valentine for Ernest Mann

“Valentine for Ernest Mann”
Naomi Shihab Nye
Naomi Shihab Nye
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Naomi Shihab Nye was born on March 12, 1952, in St. Louis, Missouri, to a
Palestinian father and an American mother. During her high school years, she
lived in Ramallah in Jordan, the Old City in Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas,
where she later received her B.A. in English and world religions from Trinity
University.
Nye gives voice to her experience as an Arab-American through poems about
heritage and peace that overflow with a humanitarian spirit. About her work, the
poet William Stafford has said, "her poems combine transcendent liveliness and
sparkle along with warmth and human insight. She is a champion of the literature
of encouragement and heart. Reading her work enhances life."
At the age of six, Nye began writing poems as soon as she learned how to write.
She was influenced by her mother who read to her all the time. At first her early
works were based on childish things such as cats, squirrels, friends, teachers,
etc. It wasn't until she was fourteen that she visited her Palestinian grandmother;
this would eventually become part of the messages in her many collections of
poetry. Her book "Fuel" is an example. Some of her earlier works were published
in Seventeen, Modern Poetry Studies, and Ironwood
Her poems and short stories have appeared in various journals and reviews
throughout North America, Europe, and the Middle and Far East. She has
traveled to the Middle East and Asia for the United States Information Agency
three times, promoting international goodwill through the arts.
Lyric Poem
 Expresses
feelings
 Does not tell a story
 Usually short
 Implies a single, strong emotion
Reading a Poem
 Pay
attention to punctuation.
 Find the subject and verb.
 Look for figures of speech.
 Listen to the poem.
 Read it again.
 Have fun.
“Valentine for Ernest Mann”
You can’t order a poem like you order a taco.
Walk up to the counter, say, “I’ll take two”
and expect it to be handed back to you
on a shiny plate.
Valentine for Ernest Mann
Still, I like your spirit.
Anyone who says, “Here’s my address,
write me a poem,” deserves something in reply.
So I’ll tell you a secret instead:
poems hide. In the bottom of our shoes,
they are sleeping. They are the shadows
drifting across our ceilings the moment
before we wake up. What we have to do
is live in a way that lets us find them.
Valentine for Ernest Mann
Once I knew a man who gave his wife
two skunks for a valentine.
He couldn’t understand why she was crying.
“I thought they had such beautiful eyes.”
And he was serious. He was a serious man
who lived in a serious way. Nothing was ugly
just because the world said so. He really
liked those skunks. So, he re-invented them
as valentines and they became beautiful.
At least, to him. And the poems that had been hiding
in the eyes of skunks for centuries
crawled out and curled up at his feet.
Valentine for Ernest Mann
Maybe if we re-invent whatever our lives give us
we find poems. Check your garage, the odd sock
in your drawer, the person you almost like, but not quite.
And let me know.
Reading Check
What do you know about Ernest Mann, the
person this poem is addressed to?
 What reason does the speaker give for writing
this poem?
 What secret about poetry does the speaker
share with Ernest Mann?
 What reason did the man in the poem give for
choosing two skunks for a valentine?
 Where does the speaker say we might find
poems?
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Interpretations
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In the first stanza the poet uses a simile. What two
very different things is she comparing? What is she
saying about poems by using this simile?
In the second stanza the poet personifies poems.
What human things does she say poems can do?
What is she telling us about poems by using this
figure of speech?
The second stanza also includes a metaphor. What
are poems compared to? What does this metaphor
tell us about poems?
Why does the speaker tell us about the man and the
skunks in the third stanza? What do skunks have to
do with poetry?
What final advice does the speaker give Ernest
Mann?
Writing
 Follow
Naomi Shihab’s advice, and try
to find a lyric poem in your life. Use
words that will help your reader see or
touch or smell an object or person the
way you do. Help your reader feel the
way you feel about the object or person.