What Have You Lost?

by Naomi Shihab Nye (Editor)

What have you lost? A friend? A brother? A wallet? A memory? A meaning? A year? Each Night Images,
dream news,
fragments,
flash
then fade.
These darkened walls. Here, I say.
Climb into
this story.
Be remembered! Jay Bremyer 00-01 Tayshas High School Reading List Notable Children's Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies 2000, National Council for SS & Child. Book Council, 2000 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA), 00 Riverbank Review Magazine's Children's Books of Distinction Award Nominations, Winner 2000 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, and 01 Riverbank Review Magazine's Children's Books of Distinction Award Nominations

Genres: Poetry, Young Adult, Anthologies, Grief, Teen, Middle East

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Naomi Shihab Nye was born to a Palestinian father and an American mother. During her high school years, she lived in Ramallah in Jordan, the Old City in Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas, where she later received her B.A. in English and world religions from Trinity University. She is a novelist, poet and songwriter.

She currently lives in San Antonio, Texas. She was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2010.

Reviews

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘This is to poems that get
lost in the dark’
--Jim Natal

What have you lost, poet Naomi Shihab Nye asks us in this anthology titled after the question. It was a prompt she used that once turned an unruly classroom towards sharp focus and clarity she tells us in her introduction, a question that often brings about surprising answers with a vastness of variety it could fill the cosmos with all the absence we feel in our lives. What Have You Lost? is a lovely anthology that is as heartfelt as it is often heartbreaking, one I find myself taking down from the shelf quite often across the years I’ve owned it. I’m someone that bruises a bit from change, and while I’m always willing and accepting of it, quietly I feel it like a stormy sea tossing me about on existential waves as I try to recenter myself on the map and get my compass bearings straight. ‘Always is nice / to have, but it doesn’t / last long,’ writes poet Peter Heitkamp, and this is something I’ve felt deeply in life. Friends you knew intimately suddenly feel like a pleasant encounter at a train station far behind you, entire interpersonal work-cultures go from the top of your text messages to faded memories you aren’t sure where to put on your shelves once you are a job or two down the line, the funerals start stacking up, the places where you lived and loved are now only glimpsed in rare drive-bys with another person’s memories-in-the-making going on inside the windows, clothes you wore, tv shows you waited all week for the new episode, the person you were, even your own youth is eventually something now lost to the present. This collection brings some great poets such as the editor, Naomi Shihab Nye herself, together and includes some familiar names like Lucille Clifton, June Jordan, Nicanor Parra, Linda Gregg, Rolf Jacobson, and even Holland, Michigan’s (where I live) hometown hero Jack Ridl who just had a reading at my library last week. These poets are joined by many who were new to me and come from all over the world to look at the variety of ways we have lost something and, though gone from us, leaves a lasting (or even fleeting) mark upon our lives.

here yet be dragons
--Lucille Clifton

so many languages have fallen
off of the edge of the world
into the dragon’s mouth. some

where there be monsters whose teeth
are sharp and sparkle with lost

people. lost poems. who
among us can imagine ourselves
unimagined? Who

among us can speak with so fragile
tongue and remain proud?

‘The art of losing isn’t hard to master,’ wrote Elizabeth Bishop, though to this Naomi Shihab Nye adds that even so ‘we don’t necessarily find losing any easier to heal from or to comprehend.’ Because of that, this collection is a balm on our weary souls—or sometimes a finger poking the bruise—as we move through coping with loss. Because it comes in so many different varieties. Here we have poems that deal with loss of love, family like parents or children, poems of divorce, but also more abstract concepts like loss of culture, home, homelands or even language (as addressed in the above Clifton poem). Pat Mora discusses how we lose the childhood of our own children and they become teenages: ‘One day they disappear / into their rooms. / Doors and lips shut / and we become strangers / in our own home.’ Or there is Richard Beban tragically reflecting on ‘the day she stopped being / grandma and turned into / that madwoman.’ Though not all issues of loss here are painful or negative, such as Joy Harjo talking about losing one’s fears in I Give You Back:

I release you, my beautiful and terrible
fear. I release you. You were my beloved
and hated twin, but now, I don't know you
as myself. I release you with all the
pain I would know at the death of
my children.
You are not my blood anymore.

Sometimes we lose our old self but find new beginnings, ‘lost again, // where the world begins,’ as John Brandi writes in Wilderness Poem. Which is what makes this such a well-rounded anthology because for all the pain and sorrow, there is still hope and joy.

‘You’re free of something you didn’t know
had a hold of you, like a ghost
you’ve lived with and just found, the haunting over.’
--Robert Funge

When it comes to loss, I always feel literature and especially poetry is a perfect medium for addressing it. Music too. We are able to capture something now gone in words, something we can still find tangible in its abstractness within us. As Jay Bremeyer writes ‘Climb into / this story. / Be remembered!’ This reminds me of that Bright Eyes lyric about putting a painful breakup into ‘a song tied to a melody / and keep you there so you can’t bother me.’ Words are powerful, and the right arrangement of words won’t fill the void but, like the brightest of spotlights, helps you see the chasm, get a sense of the walls and depth, and make it less of a dark place. Thanks poetry, and thank you Naomi Shihab Nye for such a lovely anthology. I love how much heart went into this, especially the little bios of each poet that are so full of love, jokes, and goodwill towards each. This is a healing collection, I would heartily recommend it to everyone.

⅘

Oh and of course I need to show you all some Jack Ridl. He taught here at Hope College in the writing program, the one Emily Henry graduated from, and created a phenomenal Visiting Writers Series that has brought incredible poets to our little town. So shout-out to Jack Ridl.

That Was the Summer We Had Animals
--Jack Ridl

Everything then was a comfort.
The breeze we noticed was a small
song, a single draw across the leaves.

We slept, held in cotton bags, wrapped
in a fresh night.
We lay and felt the stars were common; they
were stars, wonderful--only stars.

Sometimes it
can be a sparrow hopping on my front step.
Another time, it can be a moment lost
to memory. Another, a child
walking. And then the hand.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this on the heels of my mother's death, just over a month ago. Given to me by friends, who are also writers, colleagues, and lovers of life and learning. I'm not fully ready to give a complete review, as I think I need to sit with it a bit longer, but here's what I know so far:

Death and loss don't come as you'd expect. Whether it be a person you hold close or one you barely knew, people and things impact you in a myriad of ways, sometimes getting all tangled together like a kite string that you just can't get off the ground. You pull to unravel the knotted ends and the twists begin somewhere else.

This is what I felt like while reading this book. It's a beautiful compilation of poems on loss--some stark, some not as consuming, but all equally profound glimpses into the human heart. I was unable to read it through cover to cover...often put it down after just a few poems, mostly because it was too hard to feel. But that's the power of good writing, the power of language, the power of poetry...the power of life. As Nye says in the intro, "Losing makes us miserable, startles us awake." That is certain in my world, as it is, I'm sure, in yours.

Some of these poems are reminiscent of the greats--"Death Be Not Proud," "Do Not Go Gentle..." Others, simple fragments of lives altered by something we can't always see. I'm reminded of Hitchens' essays in "Mortality," which I recently re-read to further probe this idea of life versus death, and what each offers. I'm not sure I have any clear cut answers to the questions milling about in my head, but I know I'm more open to the discussion.

So, I'll spend some time with the words on these pages ("Insurance," "On the Suicide of a Young Boy I Did Not Know," and "I Give You Back" are 3 of my favorites,)and figure out how they play a role in my grief, but also in my gratitude. In a complicated relationship, it's my thought that investigating and writing are 2 key elements of growth; I've definitely begun to do so here. I've done quite a bit of writing, finding new paths to parts of me I never knew existed. As contributing poet Vickie Karp cautions, "Love is in the rewrites/Be slow." So, on to the next step in the journey.

I'll possibly add more to this later, when I've had a bit of space and time, and achieved some semblance of an ability to wrap my head around it all.

For now, thanks for reading.

P.S. The notes on each author at the end are almost as powerful as the poems themselves...do yourself a favor and read them, too.

[Fred Darbonne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the kind of book I keep on my side table for late evening reading, savoring it with a cup of herb tea or cocoa as it nourishes my mind and spirit. This volume did not disappoint, leaving me saddened at its finish. A collection of poems expressing the heart’s wrestling with a wide range of losses, from lost relationships, opportunities, parenting and regrets, and other things worth mourning, like identity, roles, and time, which are often unacknowledged losses. It is validating to find in these pages that one is not alone.

Compiled by poet and novelist Naomi Shihab Nye, this volume was the winner of the 2000 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award.

[Elvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

What have you lost? is a book of a collection of poems by Naomi Shihab Nye. It centers around the subject of the loss of something important, be it a memory, someone special, to everyday things that people take for granted until they are gone. One particular poem, “Words My Friend Can’t Bring Himself to Say” by Quintin Prout, was about a memory from his childhood. He remembered a game of hide and seek he would play with the kids in his neighborhood; they would hide in small places and an adult by the name of Miss Betty would find them. Years later, only after he heard that Miss Betty had died, did he remember her and wondered why he never went to visit her earlier. I really loved reading this collection of poems as it made me realize that even simple things that we have need to be cherished, because they can disappear at any moment and we might never realize until it’s too late. I gave this book a five out of five stars and would recommend it to everyone as a must-read.

[Sofia]

This is a book filled with poems that all revolve around the theme of loss. Some poems are simple and are about losing objects, while others are more personal and are about losing special relationships. My favorite poem is “Going Home” by Ben Judson. This poem is about seeing someone that resembles the one you lost. The speaker is at an airport and sees what looks like a twin of the lady that he lost. He compares the similarities between the two except the big difference is that the lady at the airport speaks Spanish, whereas the lady he lost doesn’t. This poem is very personal and that is why I love it. I give this book of poems a five out of five starts because of its organization which allows it to flow.

[Danielle Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up, an accessible collection. Interesting (though somewhat sad at times) poems, interesting photographs too - but they didn’t seem to go together. I really liked the little tidbits about the authors at the back

[Priscilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is not just because....we're in a new world, end of March/beginning of April 2020, but I could not have chanced upon a better companion than this anthology What Have You Lost? I am a picky poem-reader. Poem after poem (some by well-known names; most, happily, not) pulls me in, here. I checked this book out of the local library on what turned out to be the last day it was open (for now; please, "for now"). I love so many of these poems that I am constantly flipping to the back to read about the authors. Here are two examples of shorter poems:

KIND

I hadn't noticed
till a death took me outside
and left me there
that grass lifts so quietly
to catch everything
we drop and we drop
everything.


Leonard Nathan


WAKING INSTRUCTIONS

Crawl ashore
to the damp beginning of day.

Forget before and after.

Allow yourself
to be spelled differently.

It will feel like falling.

It has waiting attached.


Emma Mellon

[Tristan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I was surprised by the incredible sweetness and strength of this collection. Usually, Ms. Nye is a perpetually four-star author--really truly amazing, except for her semi-regular disasters--but as an anthologist, she has blown my socks off. This collection, while not unified in tone or in specific subject, was linked together by the use of "loss" as the persistent theme of the collection. Every poem was powerful and well composed, and most were by poets of whom I have never even heard, much less ones that I've already read a significant body of work. I shall have to look more for Catherine Bowman, Hector Carreto, Joy Harjo, Jim Natal, Ken Fontenot, Philip Appleman, and more. This is one collection that I really wish I had not borrowed from the library, but raher had purchased, because there are just too many names to watch out for and I know I'll forget most of them. Every poem was good, but some of my favorites were "Lament", "The House at 5 Allende Street", "Barns Collapsing", "Drifter, Owl, Mouse", and "Dedication". This last is probably my very favorite and it begins

This is to poems that get
lost in the dark,

poems that flutter
away, white moths
just out of reach...

The photographs, all by Ms. Nye's husband Michael, are a poignant and effective addition to the work. Each portrait is a moment of a different sadness, each one capturing pain in all of its forms. For me, the best of these is the picture immediately following "Lament", of a woman in a "Mexican-style" dress and heavy make-up holding two forks, but the boxer pictured on the cover is a close second for the picture that contains the greatest indication of everything that has been taken away from these people. Both of these seem to scream for help, desperate to share the cultures, hopes, dreams, lives, that they have been deprived of.

All in all, a phenomenal collection; I'll have to see if Ms. Nye is this consistently unerring with her choices as an anthologist and read another book that she selected the pieces.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shannon Miranda
Poetry Genre

This is a collection of poems by different authors. The theme of the book is loss; some poems are literally about losing a material object. Yet, many are about the loss of a loved one, or more abstract such as the loss of someone’s childhood, innocence or time.

I believe that there is something for everyone in this book to be able to relate to. Some poems are a few pages long, others are just short snippets, these in particular pack a powerful punch. One poem in particular that I connected with is called “What came to me” written by Jane Kenyon on page 99.

I recommend this book. It is a well written assortment of eclectic poetry all with a connected theme. The writing is contemporary and a great foray for a teacher or librarian to suggest this genre for a young adult.

[Michael Poage · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, smart, and varied collection of poems that give life to a dark day and fullness to an empty night. Naomi Shihab Nye is a gifted writer who also does the work of reading/editing with skill and thoughtfullness. I had this book on a shelf here in my home study but did not know it. I found the one copy, then, a second copy - I guess I was meant to read the book which I am doing with gratitude and I had the pleasure of being able to give such a living book to someone else. Thanks, Naomi!!

[Polly · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best collection of poems I've read to date. Why? Because the poems are collected by theme in a grass roots method, each one had depth, personality, personal story,--and most importantly-- I could always understand what the poem was about. It was about loss. Surprisingly this theme created the force of hope in its writers. The second half of the book was titled "What have you found?" For in losing, we find. I"d love to meet Naomi and talk about this book.

[Manik Sukoco · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this selection of poetry. The selections are beautiful and thoughtful. No vulgarity. I'm glad this book caught my eye! I've read other books and poems by Ms. Nye, and she is a splendid author! I love all of her work. All the poems are touching, and they can relate to almost any situation life may throw at you.

[Kenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of poems has never held as many of my favourites as this one has. Generally free style, the words hit the modern reader with intimate veiws on life everyone has at some point. This book brought me through hard times.

[Alexandra Ramirez · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the book, Naomi Shihab Nye wrote down lots of poems dealing with people’s losses.
There were a lot of people writing poems about loss and it explained it in many ways. Like death or loss of communication. Naomi wanted us as a reader to understand the different losses that there is in this world, that it's not all sunshine and rainbows that things happen and that's okay. I guess I chose the right book because I have experienced lots of what these people have written and felt. It was interesting reading and seeing myself in their shoes, it amazed me knowing that there are other types of loss. When one of the poets from the book (Pat Mora) mentioned communication loss it really hit me. The poem was call teenager and it wasn't about the loss of communication with a teacher or friends but about families parents losing their children and watching them grow up to this moody human being. Then in a few years coming back, being a grown adult and better than ever. This poem helped me realize what I was doing wrong and helping me change, so I can become better.

What have you lost? By Naomi Shihab Nye. This book was an interesting one to read, it gave me a lot to think about and to be grateful about. It taught me that loss this not a bad thing and if we always push it aside we will never teach what truly needs to be taught. When I was reading the Poems it made me remember some off moments in my life but it also made me feel reassured because the poet had also felt this way before. Naomi had many poems from people around the world sharing their feelings and stories. which I liked because not everyone has the same opinion especially in different countries. A lot of the poems would also talk about different types of relationships, it was interesting to read and think about how much a few words or phrases can affect someone. I would give this book a 3-star rating because it was a good book but it was also kind of old-fashioned and poetry is not my favorite genre.

[Lilly Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the collection of poems that were in this book. Not only were these relatable but they also had a message. I loved the poems in this book but some of them were hard to read. My favorite one was probably shedding skin (page 28). In my eyes, it was talking more about shedding thoughts and baggage and it was something I really needed when reading this book. The other one that I really liked was It Was Here (page 90). This one talked about memories and how when you go through them with other people then it makes life easier. Overall, I really liked this book. It was good for all moods and everyone was very original.

[Bill DeGenaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved slowly making my way through this collection & the experience made me want to read more anthologies. First, so many of these poems offered original, askew perspectives on all types of loss: lost things, lost people, lost innocence. Second, I appreciated the fact that I wasn't familiar with most of the writers. I bookmarked favorite poems with small scraps of paper and also leafed to the short bios at the end--some as lovely as the poems. Appreciate NSN for curating such a cool & diverse array of voices.

[Cris Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

A meditative collection by a wide variety of poets. Though the theme is "loss", there is a lot to place under that rubric. Some are about the death of a loved one, but many are about losing things like opportunities, moments, or even losing something or someone who was bad in the first place; a good loss. Many of the poems were immediately accessible to me, while others didn't really connect with how I am now, and a few I am unsure of and will need to reread later. Overall, an interesting and great assemblage of thoughtful poems.

[Carl Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Is there anything good about losing? Does loss help us discover anything? Maybe sometimes we notice or take better care of what we still have. Momentarily. Maybe we talk about our petty loses with such energy is that there are so many inevitable larger ones that can never be redeemed or reclaimed. The people. The eras of our lives." (p xii)

I borrowed this anthology. Though I'm marking it as "read" I'll keep poking around it in until it needs to be returned. So many of the selection resonate deeply--

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like a 3.5. I read this book because we're doing a poetry unit in Language Arts. We made a poem compilation of 5-10 poems about a topic that you choose. I chose death, so this booked seemed like a good option. It was actually pretty fun the first half of reading it. But then it went downhill from there. I didn't feel like finishing it. But I pushed through it and finished! It was okay, I'm not a huge fan of poetry though.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book brought me into the world of poetry. It is a collection of -as you guessed it- things we have lost. While some are simple like the disappearance of car keys, others are incredibly hard like car loss or virginity. Regardless, I think that this read is one that every teen, adult, etc. should partake in.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An ecclectic anthology of poems in response to the the questions, "What Have you lost?" And "What have you found?" Naomi Shihab Nye is one of my favorite poets and anthologies and it was a delight to read this collection from 1999.

[Wawan Kurn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Diedit dan dipilih Naomi Shihab, puisi-puisinya berasal dari beberapa orang dengan beragam latarbelakang. Menyenangkan bisa membacanya, selanjutnya saya perlu membaca tulisan Naomi sendiri.

[Pete Farlam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved these meditations on the theme of loss.

[Degan Walters · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the idea behind this anthology but very few of the poems resonated with me.

[George Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific poet and thought provoking theme.

[Kim Pollack · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a collection of poems from authors famous and unfamiliar to me. A few very poignant ones will stay with me for a long time.

[Annelise Ogle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, rich, varied, cohesive.

[Mike Hammer · Rating 3 out of 5]

cool theme, good artwork and pretty good poems, some are great some are blah but overall it was a nice book, a good collection/project

[Eli Kelly]

i love this book :)

[Sammy Neuman · Rating 4 out of 5]

What Was Once Reached For 😢