Wake, Butterfly: You Are Living in a Poem with Naomi Shihab Nye

In the first episode of season 2, Naomi Shihab Nye invites readers to develop a ritual. _____ Matsuo Bashō wrote: Wake, butterfly— it's late, we've miles to go together. Poetry magazine presents Wake, Butterfly, a series of intimate portraits that invite listeners to keep creating. The series is produced by Rachel James with sound design by Axel Kacoutié. _____ Here’s an edited version of Naomi Shihab Nye’s prompt: First, write three “nuggets” of three lines each: For nugget 1, write three questions that you're carrying. For nugget 2, write three outstanding details observed or absorbed by the senses within the past twenty-four hours. For nugget 3, write three lines you've overheard, or three things that are causing you trouble, or three memories you're suddenly carrying, or three things about what's going on in the news, or three overheard quotes you’ve heard within the past day or two. Then go away from your page for a minute; read a poem or reread a letter from your old friend. Come back to your page and reread what you wrote this morning and pick out two or three things that you like best from what you wrote down. Try to write a poem that incorporates those things. _____ Credits: Naomi Shihab Nye’s poems “Come With Me” and “For Mohammed Zeid of Gaza, age 15” are from Everything Comes Next (Greenwillow Books, 2022). The excerpt of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s poem read in the episode is from Back Roads to Far Places (New Directions, 1971). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You can listen to Wake, Butterfly: You Are Living in a Poem with Naomi Shihab Nye online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Wake, Butterfly: You Are Living in a Poem with Naomi Shihab Nye is an episode from The Poetry Magazine Podcast by Poetry Foundation.

This episode is 00:16:57 long.

This episode was published on Apr 21, 2026.

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