Wandering and Finding Naomi at Gate A-4

I love it when serendipity strikes.
There I was pursuing a post about data visualisation.
Two clicks later I am in Albuquerque Airport Terminal with Naomi Shihab Nye.
Naomi is a poet. Her observations at Gate A-4 give a distinctive voice to the connected, caring world to which I aspire to be a member.
The poem starts:

Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal, after learning
my flight had been delayed four hours, I heard an announcement:
“If anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic, please
come to the gate immediately.”

It contains, among other treasures, this line:

Then I
thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian poets I know
and let them chat with her?

It concludes events at Gate A-4 with this:

This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.

I thought about many things whilst reading and reflecting on Naomi’s poem. It speaks profoundly to my hopes for connected communities who share openly out of a profound sense of others …
… and celebrates the importance of stepping up when it easier to step back.
I hope you enjoy the poem.

Photo Credit

Albuquerque Airport (Jon Lewis, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)