This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems from Around the World

Naomi Shihab Nye has collected over one hundred poems from poets all over the world. The poems are about many things, including nature and families. While the details of the poetry (items, animals and birds) are foreign, the feelings expressed are familiar to us all.Some of the poems are funny, like the one from Altazor by Vicente Huidobro, many others are sad ("My Life Story" by Lan Nguyen and "Behind Bars" by Fadwa Tuqan). Some poems are puzzling, like "Petrified Minute" by Zoltan Zelk and others make you want to know more of the story behind them, like Ruth Dallas's "A New Dress" and Gu Cheng's "A Headstrong Boy." There are poems that create beautiful mental images, and poems that leave the reader bewildered and vaguely disturbed (Tony Perez's "Volunteer Worker").While the words have been translated into English, much of this poetry is difficult to understand. Many poems would be almost meaningless for a reader with no frame of reference to place the poem in. The poem "Jerusalem" by the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai is one that a reader with little knowledge about the history of Palestine would find puzzling. The brief Notes on the Contributors at the back of the volume help explain a little more about the poets, but to truly understand some of the poetry more background information is needed. This collection is not one most children will fully understand on their own.