Blood (GT)
"A true Arab knows how to catch a fly in his hands,"
my father would say. And he'd prove it,
cupping the buzzer instantly
while the host with the swatter stared.
In the spring our palms peeled like snakes.
True Arabs believed watermelon could heal fifty ways.
I changed these to fit the occasion.
Years before, a girl knocked,
wanted to see the Arab.
I said we didn't have one.
After that, my father told me who he was,
"Shihab"--"shooting star"-a good name, borrowed from the sky.
Once I said, "When we die, we give it back?"
He said that's what a true Arab would say.
Today the headlines clot in my blood.
A little Palestinian dangles a truck on the front page.
Homeless fig, this tragedy with a terrible root
is too big for us. What flag can we wave?
I wave the flag of stone and seed,
table mat stitched in blue.
I call my father, we talk around the news.
It is too much for him,
neither of his two languages can reach it.
I drive into the country to find sheep, cows,
to plead with the air:
Who calls anyone civilized?
Where can the crying heart graze?
What does a true Arab do now?
Naomi Shihab Nye
Introduction to Poetry (H and CP)
Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
Name: ____________________________________
Date: _____________________
Metaphor and Simile Activity
Directions: In partners (no more than that!) you will underline each metaphor and circle
each simile in the poem provided. Then, you will explain what two things the author is
comparing and why they are comparing them.
1. Example from the poem—what two things are being compared?
How are these two things alike according to the author (think!)?
2. Example from the poem—what two things are being compared?
How are these two things alike according to the author (think!)?
3. Example from the poem—what two things are being compared?
How are these two things alike according to the author (think!)?
4. Example from the poem—what two things are being compared?
How are these two things alike according to the author (think!)?
5. Example from the poem—what two things are being compared?
How are these two things alike according to the author (think!)?