Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem “Shoulders” is a call to action. It acknowledges the unavoidable presence of sorrow and hardship within the human experience, while maintaining the optimistic belief that understanding and accepting sorrow can help one appreciate life and achieve positivity. Nye does not ask readers to move mountains; she simply provides them with an example of how far a small act of kindness can go. In much the same way that Nye uses simple language and approachable subject matter to engage readers with familiar tropes, she uses small acts of kindness to champion baby steps, baby steps that, when added up, can achieve greatness.

One of the first instances in the poem that highlights Nye’s call to action appears with the deceptively simple title: “Shoulders.” In the poem’s literal context, shoulders represent the father, who is hoisting his son on his shoulders to protect the child from the surrounding world. This act of paternal kindness ensures that the child is safe from cars and rain (Lines 1, 4-5) and any other potential threats. What is just as important is the fact that the child is sleep, which means that this act of kindness is as much for the child as it is for the father.