Mediterranean Blue (Naomi Shihab Nye)

In my group, we analyzed the poem “Mediterranean Blue” by Naomi Shihab Nye (2019). The author is an Arab-American, and the poem responds to the refugee migrant crisis (of people from the Middle East to Europe). The poem addresses the reader as “you” and starts by saying, “If you are a child of a refugee, you do not sleep easily when they are crossing the sea on small rafts, and you know they can’t swim” (lines 1-3). That is how most Middle Eastern refugees escape from their home countries in a very dangerous way. A part that stood out to me in the poem is, “They are the bravest people on earth right now, don’t dare look down on them. Each mind a universe swirling as many details as yours, as much love for a humble place” (lines 10-13). The author is telling the reader that refugees are people too, and they should be treated with the respect that people would have for any other person, if not more, considering all the hardships they’ve gone through and the sacrifices they’ve had to make to get where they are today. The poem’s last line, saying, “And if we can reach out a hand, we better,” tells the reader that they should help out refugees however they can (line 16).