Faux Pas With a Famous Poet
A story about the night I made a rookie English teacher mistake
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.
From “Valentine for Ernest Mann” by Naomi Shihab Nye
The first line of Nye’s poem could be the calling card of this newsletter: Maybe if we re-invent whatever our lives give us, we find poems. Even though I can’t take credit for Naomi’s magical combination of words, I can aspire to live life with a seeking-poems-wherever-I-can-find-them state of mind.
Way back in 2000, I had the honor of sharing a meal with Naomi Shihab Nye. She’d spent the day inspiring English teachers who were fellows of the South Coast Writing Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara. After the meeting, a few of us gathered at our director’s home for a dinner in her honor.
Pasta bowls were filled and wine was flowing as we watched an awesome Pacific Ocean sunset. Naomi was calm, beautiful, and lyrical just like her poems. Me? I was an overly enthusiastic fangirl, and felt compelled to share my thoughts about “Valentine for Ernest Mann.”
“Naomi, I just love how created a name that reflected the personality of the man in your poem. You know—an earnest man. That’s so clever.”
Naomi leaned in. She smiled gently.
“Oh, Lorrie, thanks so much, but I didn’t make up that name. Ernest Mann is an eighth grader who asked me to write him a poem on Valentine’s Day.”
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.
Still, I like your spirit.
Anyone who says, “Here’s my address,
write me a poem,” deserves something in reply.
Whoops! As Gilda Radner used to say in one of her classic SNL skits, “Never mind.”
If Naomi hadn’t been so gracious, and my friends so kind, I would have been beyond embarrassed! I made a rookie English teacher move, seeking symbolism in places it didn’t exist. Instead, we all had a good laugh and moved on to dessert.
Before the meal ended, Naomi signed a copy of my book, Words Under Words. I treasure her gracious inscription.
I’ve come to believe that one of the ways we can light up the rooms we inhabit is by laughing at ourselves. I think of my Naomi story often, but I don’t include it in my repertoire of “embarrassing moment” stories. I don’t cringe when I think of it. Maybe that’s because I’ve taken her advice and reinvented the story. I think of her kind reply to me. And how the message in the poem that I over-analyzed has had such a big influence on my life.
Poems hide…
What we have to do
is live in a way that lets us find them.
That’s my wish for you. That you’re living in a way that lets you find the poetry hiding in your life. Even if it’s hiding in dusty nooks and crannies that you’d rather ignore.
If you find some, let me know.