Gate A-4

Of her liberal upbringing, Nye has said, “Well, I felt very lucky, as a child, to have open-minded parents. And I knew they were open-minded, because they were unlike any other parents I met, my friends’ parents. I also knew that they didn’t practice the religions of their upbringings, either one of them. So, this fascinated me, as even a little child, and I would ask a lot of questions; there was no sense of a taboo subject.” The sense of openness that pervaded Nye’s childhood pervades her earlier poems as well, often featuring journeys and a search for the truth. She frequently explores cultural differences and similarities between West Asia and America in her poetry. Though Nye is often associated with her Palestinian-American heritage, she is very much a San Antonio poet who explores the multicultural city’s unique mix of western American, Latinx, and South American encounters. Though her poems are often humanist in theme and content, Nye does not shy away from the thornier aspects of cultural difference. In “Grandfather’s Heaven,” (Different Ways to Pray; 1980), for example, a child states, “Grandma liked me even though my daddy was a Moslem.” Here, the child’s innocent and direct statement alludes to the implicit subtext that there may be something odd or unacceptable about the father’s Moslem origins.

Nye counts her mentor, the poet William Stafford (1914-1993) as one of her biggest literary influences. Stafford’s poems use a measured, compassionate voice and a straightforward diction, qualities observable in Nye’s own work. According to Steve Garrison in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Stafford “offers a unique way into the heart of the world." Nye’s Palestinian-American heritage and her experience of cultural differences have shaped her own unique world view, which appears in the humanism of her poems. Nye’s poems are nuanced, illuminating the universal through the individual; in “Gate A4,” the particular experience of a Palestinian woman stuck at an airport where few speak her language, sheds light on universal themes of despair, alienation, hope, and kindness. “Gate A4,” like many of Nye’s poems, also emphasizes optimism and hope in everyday situations.