“Vocation” by William Stafford (1962)

Written by the post-war American poet Nye acknowledges as her spiritual and artistic mentor, Stafford’s poem defines the role of the poet as someone who humbly listens to the world about them. Rejecting as untenable egotism the postmodern notion that privileged the poet, Stafford’s poem, which Nye often used in her own poetry readings, recreates the moment that the poet as a boy senses that nature is trying to communicate to him a message of vitality, endurance, and optimism.

Poem 260 (“I’m Nobody”) by Emily Dickinson (1862)

Written by a poet known for seeking the sanctuary refuge of her Amherst home and preferring not to seek publication for her eccentric verse, Poem 260 can offer a comparison to Nye’s irrepressible and un-ironic sense of the poet’s mission to reach out, to delight, engage, and ultimately charge the lives of readers with optimism, courage, and joy. How dreadful, how public, Dickinson suggests, for a poet to be read, a contrast to Nye’s idea of a poet as a pulley engaged with the happy business of moving readers.

“Different Ways to Pray” by Naomi Shihab Nye (1995)

Appearing in the same collection as “Famous,” this poem helps understand Nye’s unflagging optimism by grounding her joy in her lifelong study of world religions.