What About the Good Kids?



What Have You Lost by Naomi Nye

Nye, N. (1999). What have you lost. New York: Greenwillow Books.



Naomi Nye’s What Have You Lost would be a real surprise for a teenager expecting singsong poems about flowers and rainbows.  The poems have a blank verse grittiness that seems like a poetic version of realistic fiction.  Abbot Cutler’s “Letter to Terry Dobson” and Diana Der-Hovanessian’s “Secret to Life” especially moved me, perhaps in part because they refer to the Maine-N.H. area where I grew up.  The photographs in the book are as stark as the words.

 

The only thing that bothered me about the collection of poems was that they seemed to focus on teenagers who were stressed, lost, etc.  Since this was a collection of poems that could encompass any and all themes, it would have been nice to have also included some works that the classic All-American kids could also relate to.  Wouldn’t it be nice if the teenagers who stay out of trouble, study hard and try to be just good kids could have someone write poems for them that acknowledge their hard work, encourage their efforts and inspire them to continue to stay on the right track.

Google Images: openlibrary.org