Poem: ‘Cold’
There’s a temptation to see itas deterioration,a shift from perfection,the descent of long daysto long nights, darkness intrudingon the morning, low clouds obscuringthe sunrise, now a matter of faith....
View ArticleThe Texas Observer Lives!
On Friday, the staff and I had a big party to celebrate the revival of the Texas Observer at our offices in Austin. I wanted to share my remarks with the readers who saved our bacon. The staff and I...
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Poem: At the Lindale, Texas Post Office, I Ask for a Book of Stamps
He hands me the standard issue American flag variety with its red,its white, its ever-deepening blue. But I am tired, America, tiredof your shouting flags, this flag, all our flags, every—God help...
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Deep in the Hearts of Children: 50 Years of Public Poetry
Editor’s Note Naomi Shihab Nye was Poetry Editor at the Texas Observer for the past 28 years. A sixth-grader wearing a yellow floral dress waved me down, then sidled up to my car window in Albany,...
View ArticlePoem: A Prayer to Georgia O’Keeffe
I want to livein the negative spaceof your landscapes, recede intoshadows on the horizon soft likean echo,a ghost note. Desert mother,I see you cloistered inyour Model Ain a swarm of bees,painting...
View ArticlePoem: The Pantoum
A seed slowly fractures the soil as it ascendsWe are descended on the ground before an angel appearsWith no trumpets or ember shouting from the ground he whispersFreedom was the only thing we...
View ArticlePoem: West Texas Sage
Heading into the desert sun,I tail an enthusiastic storm.Tires zing on sizzling pavement,slash through puddleson the rain-darkened highway, Like a guardian flanking the roadto El Paso, a muscular...
View ArticlePoem: From There to Here
Above: A parking lot at a luxury apartment complex in downtown Dallas, Texas. A silhouette, stationed at his Dallas valet standawaiting the healthy, the wealthy, the privileged, thefavored. Hugo fled...
View ArticleNaomi Shihab Nye: Life As a Palestinian-American Poet
Naomi Shihab Nye is the Texas Observer’s poetry editor emeritus. She is Palestinian-American and grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and San Antonio. She frequently visited family in Palestine throughout...
View ArticlePoem: Drought
We sit by the window of the nursing homewhere her face can feel the sun.Her eyes are cloudy with cataracts,pale blue wells that caughta lifetime of tearsand never let them go.I want to ask her what it...
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