19 Varieties of Gazelle: Red Brocad & They Dropped It

Passage from Introduction:

"She wanted people to worship in whatever way they felt comfortable.  To respect one another, sit together around the fire cracking almonds and drinking tea, and never forget to laugh, no matter what horrible things they had been through." (xvii-xviii)

  Nye brings a sense of calm to my thoughts of the Middle East when reading her poems.  I stopped after Red Brocad to contemplate what I had just read.  Post 9/11, many Americans are led to believe that the Middle East is full of people who hate and ridden with terror everyday.  Nye's statement that Arabs use to say to allow a stranger in you home for three days shifted my mind completely out of all stereotypes I am bombarded with.  I pictured and Arab family, Mom, Dad, Children, become great acquaintances with a stranger.  No one was judgmental, ignorant to the stranger's background.  "I refuse to be claimed," really jumped out at me (41).  I live in a country where time is everything and an Arab-American woman is challenging my conceptions about being so scheduled.  

   The author also challenge's people to deconstruct this image of a terror ridden Middle East with her poem, They Dropped It.  There is this idea that one's age, class, or any characteristic can stop one from recognizing and appreciating the beauty nature gives us.  There is a question posed, "Who deserves flowers more? Rich people who never came outside or children stuck all day in school" (83)?  In the end of the poem, the one who enjoys the flowers the most remains ambiguous other than the fact that home is across a sea.  Someone is able to stop and appreciate something that is overlooked by most.  Maybe Nye is referring to herself, appreciating something because she is far away from the source of her culture.

   Both bring this sense of calm and appreciation for people when thinking about the Middle East.  She wrote about the controversy that 9/11 has brought about Arab people in her introduction and refers to 9/11 in poems.  Her Grandmother's morals of acceptance in all comes through in these two poems.  There is challenge to readers to think about judgement and refrain from it.  If you refrain from it you may have something great to appreciate.