All Things Not Considered 

by Naomi Shihab Nye

You cannot stitch the breath

back into this boy.

A brother and sister were playing with toys

when their room exploded.

In what language

is this holy?

The Jewish boys killed in the cave

were skipping school, having an adventure.

Asel Asleh, Palestinian, age 17, believed in the field

beyond right and wrong where people came together

to talk. He kneeled to help someone else

stand up before he was shot.

                                                                 If this is holy,                                                                   

could we have some new religions please?

Mohammed al-Durra huddled against his father

in the street, terrified. The whole world saw him die.

An Arab father on crutches burying his 4 month girl weeps,

“I spit in the face of this ugly world.”

*

Most of us would take our children over land.

We would walk in the fields forever homeless

with our children,

huddle under cliffs, eat crumbs and berries,

to keep our children.

This is what we say from a distance

because we can say whatever we want.

*

No one was right.

Everyone was wrong.

What if they’d get together

and say that?

At a certain point

the flawed narrator wins.

People made mistakes for decades.

Everyone hurt in similar ways

at different times.

Some picked up guns because guns were given.

If they were holy it was okay to use guns.

Some picked up stones because they had them.

They had millions of them.

They might have picked up turnip roots

or olive pits.

Picking up things to throw and shoot:

at the same time people were studying history,

going to school.

*

        The curl of a baby’s graceful ear.

    The calm of a bucket

waiting for water.

Orchards of the old Arab men

who knew each tree.

Jewish and Arab women

standing silently together.

Generations of black.

  Are people the only holy land?

First Exploratory and Notes

         “All Things Not Considered” by Naomi Shihab Nye is one of the most heart breaking poem. When I first read this poem, I was a bit emotional according to the first line of this poem. “You cannot stitch the breath back into this boy “which is means that life is too precious for everyone and once you lose it, there is no second chance. I believe this poem explores the flaws of religion. The poem starts out by asking “In what language is this holy?” after describing the brutal death of innocent children based on line “A brother and sister were playing with toys when their room exploded”.

          Naomi also stated that “could we have some new religions please”? In my opinion, religion themselves do not cause harm, hatred, violence or revenge. In fact, religion taught human about peaceful doctrine which is constructed to ensure harmony among people. The problem is when some extremist leaders distort their religion to ascertain their future power. I think that Naomi Shihab Nye does not necessarily misunderstand this concept, either. Have you considered re-reading the line “If this is holy, could we have some new religions please?” as ironic?

         I think most people do not put enough awareness for what happened to the whole world nowadays. For example, Naomi puts the characters named “Asel Asleh and Muhammed Al-Durra but I am sure some people do not even care about them.  The line “The whole world saw him die” but does it mean that the whole world really do care about this unfortunate children? Some might said yes, some might just ignored. So, if they do ask us, what will be our answer? Because, obviously we did nothing to help them.  My question is, are we really generations of black? That is all my opinion. No matter the situation, there’s always a different point of view.

Mini-outline and thesis statement

It is a kind of narrative poem, which is the speaker could be the one who saw the war, and it is historical event.

The narrator/speaker describes the bad condition of the world nowadays.

The tone of this poem: Horror, cruelty, sadness and curiosity because she left us with several question mark. For example, If this is holy,could we have some new religions please?

Themes: War, sadness, anger, life conflicts, women’s voice

Human’s conflict –innocent children was killed

                          -  -conflict between Jewish and Muslims (The Palestinians)