Grace Notes: Poems About Families

Nye (The Turtle of Michigan) centers themes of family and examines the life of her late mother in 100 never-before-published poems. Using eloquent and raw verse, the author describes how her white Lutheran-raised mother meet her Palestinian father (“my mom married/ the first Arab she ever met”), summarizing the astonishing confluence of events: “the fact we exist at all/ is a random grace note/ of a forgotten symphony.” Her mother’s side “carried their Germany with them,” while her paternal grandmother “wore a white hijab, lived to 106/ always seemed young.” Stanzas describe her family’s Kansan beginnings (“then one day they come to a town in Kansas”), their move to Jerusalem “[a]fter my parents divorced and remarried,” and how war motivated their flight to Texas (“Texas, here we come”), where Nye still lives today. While some verses engage in artful wordplay (“Pizzicato possibilities,/ arpeggio challenges,/ staccato surprise”), Nye’s full power radiates in simple lines that slice to the heart: “I told the boy/ I had a bad dream./ He said, Have a new one.” Select poems touch on the contemporary crisis in Gaza in this mature and timely collection that emanates brilliance and soul. Ages 10–up. (May)