Famous by Naomi Shihab Nye
Dec. 11th, 2025 04:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conulyThe river is famous to the fish.
The loud voice is famous to silence,
which knew it would inherit the earth
before anybody said so.
The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds
watching him from the birdhouse.
The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.
The idea you carry close to your bosom
is famous to your bosom.
The boot is famous to the earth,
more famous than the dress shoe,
which is famous only to floors.
The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it
and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.
I want to be famous to shuffling men
who smile while crossing streets,
sticky children in grocery lines,
famous as the one who smiled back.
I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,
or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,
but because it never forgot what it could do.
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Link
The loud voice is famous to silence,
which knew it would inherit the earth
before anybody said so.
The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds
watching him from the birdhouse.
The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.
The idea you carry close to your bosom
is famous to your bosom.
The boot is famous to the earth,
more famous than the dress shoe,
which is famous only to floors.
The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it
and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.
I want to be famous to shuffling men
who smile while crossing streets,
sticky children in grocery lines,
famous as the one who smiled back.
I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,
or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,
but because it never forgot what it could do.
Link
no subject
Date: 2025-12-09 11:06 am (UTC)and there they sat for a moment, neither quite what had happened nor what to do next. Until I intervened and top Kitsune to drop it!
The hawk flew off, ruffled and scared but otherwise unhurt... but I noticed in following days that it always gained some altitude when flying over garden. And Kitsune would chatter at it.
Well, Kitsune left over the Rainbow Bridge years ago...and I don't know how long hawks live, but I noticed the local hawks still climb when flying over head, like they're flying over an invisible 'bump' in the air. I figure that one hawk taught it's chicks, passing on the trauma.
So yes, the cat is famous to the birds indeed!
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