"When you quietly close
the door to a room
the room is not finished."

Today’s Dear Poet video features Academy of American Poets Chancellor Naomi Shihab Nye, author of numerous books of poems, including Transfer (BOA Editions, 2011); You and Yours (BOA Editions, 2005), which received the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award; and several books of poetry and fiction for children, including Habibi (Simon Pulse, 1997), for which she received the Jane Addams Children’s Book award in 1998.

Watch Naomi Shihab Nye reading “How Do I Know When a Poem Is Finished?” for the Dear Poet project. Young people grades five through twelve are invited to send us their letters in response to the poem, for a chance to have them featured on Poets.org.

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