Sidekick

Written by internationally beloved poet Naomi Shihab Nye, Sidekick stands as a testament to poetry’s enduring power to bear witness. With each poem, Nye affirms a truth that feels more urgent than ever: every human being deserves safety, dignity, and peace.

Drawing on her family’s deep roots in Palestine, Nye writes with both abiding love and immeasurable heartbreak, offering intimate reflections that illuminate the human cost of conflict. Long a champion of dialogue across borders and divides, she crafts poems that are direct, conversational, and unafraid to confront the systems and structures that perpetuate harm.

Through her signature blend of candor, lyrical grace, and careful attention to everyday lives, Nye offers a collection that urges readers to look more closely, feel more deeply, and imagine a world in which we refuse to turn away from one another.

Praise for Naomi Shihab Nye

“On every page, Shihab Nye's insistent call is the same: people, all people, deserve to live safe and healthy lives, free from fear and violence. She mourns, rages, takes politicians to task, but always lands on the side of compassion.” —Shelf Awareness

“This poet, always America’s sweetheart, has shared her life with us through her career, warmth, and wisdom—earning our validation—and now, even more, she makes emotion and the world meld, to give an in-depth analysis of her besieged land, letting us know how it appears from inside.” —Washington Independent Review of Books

At the Book Festival

No bombs were thrown for varying opinions, no grenades

cast onto words, we felt sane for a day, mingling,

as of old, with people we did or did not know, listening

in unison, greeting and hugging,

finding another room, tent,

Italian crème cake after lunch for energy,

buying a book for its title alone, not feeling stuck

or lost, on the brink of collapse,

or scared of anyone else, or worried, not a bit.

Sitting next to people we did not know,

everyone smiled. At the Book Festival we were

wildly wealthy, truly democratic.