Naomi Shihab Nye's Poignant Reflection on Fame and Silence ✨

The river is famous to the fish. <br /> <br />The loud voice is famous to silence, <br />which knew it would inherit the earth <br />before anybody said so. <br /> <br />The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds <br />watching him from the birdhouse. <br /> <br />The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek. <br /> <br />The idea you carry close to your bosom <br />is famous to your bosom. <br /> <br />The boot is famous to the earth, <br />more famous than the dress shoe, <br />which is famous only to floors. <br /> <br />The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it <br />and not at all famous to the one who is pictured. <br /> <br />I want to be famous to shuffling men <br />who smile while crossing streets, <br />sticky children in grocery lines, <br />famous as the one who smiled back. <br /> <br />I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous, <br />or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular, <br />but because it never forgot what it could do.<br /><br />Naomi Shihab Nye<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/famous-9/