Morning Song

Inspired by Janna Jihad Ayyad’s activism, Nye composed a poem that pays tribute to Ayyad’s work, acknowledging the sacrifices and challenges she, along with all Palestinians, face in taking risks for a more peaceful existence.

Until the final line, every stanza is a couplet: two-lined stanzas. Nye uses an objective first-person plural speaker throughout most of the poem, sans the italicized lines which indicate the thoughts of the “tiny journalist” (Line 1).

The first stanza describes who the journalist (Ayyad) is and what she does, referring back to the title of the poetry collection: “tiny journalist” (Line 1). The second stanza details specifically what the tiny journalist sees: “documents the moves, the dust” (Line 3). The third stanza mentions how she does her work: “She knows how to take a picture / with her phone” (Lines 5-6), referencing Ayyad’s use of her mother’s iPhone. The fourth stanza contains a simile, evoking the image of a balloon floating in the air to portray how high the journalist holds her phone to get the most comprehensive photos of her surroundings. This stanza abruptly switches tone when suggesting that this work is not her first choice: “[S]he would / prefer to dance and play” (Lines 7-8).